Kochi: In a new twist to the Nedumbassery gold smuggling case, a CBI source has confirmed that the sleuths have got evidence of close links between a Malayalam film superstar and smuggling accused T.K. Faiz.
The actor with a craze for high-end cars often called Faiz over phone and used his car during his Gulf trips.
Faiz was using the high-end cars of his boss Latheef, which were given for the actor, CBI cops confirmed.
However, they said the evidence did not mean that the actor was directly linked to the gold smuggling.
“We are not going to arraign the superstar as there is no evidence linking him to the smuggling operations. Being an acquaintance of the accused does not mean that he is linked to the racket,” said the source. Faiz knew many other big fish in the Malayalam film industry, including another popular actor and several other actresses, the sleuths said.
Faiz’s cine links were established earlier too as he had made a guest appearance in Dileep-starrer ‘Sringaravelan’.
Model Shravya Sudhakar, a movie aspirant, confessed to knowing the accused since last May as he had promised to introduce her to the bigwigs in film fraternity, while actress Mythili said she knew Faiz for the last six years.
The CBI had also received evidence of Faiz’s close links with a Tamil actress, Muthu Chippi.
According to the CBI source, Faiz got acquainted with movie stars by introducing himself as a business tycoon.
CBI officers said the statements given by model Shravya Sudhakar were almost true.
“We are sure that 90 percent of her statements are true. We are confirming the rest 10 percent. She is not in our suspects list,” they said.
Next: Chandrasekharan murder case accused spoke to Faiz on Aug 4, 6
TPC accused spoke to Faiz on Aug 4, 6
Kozhikode: The undertrial prisoners of T.P. Chandrasekharan murder case contacted gold smuggler T.K. Faiz on August 4 and 6, according to the call detail record (CDR) collected by cyber cell sleuths in connection with the Facebook controversy.
It may be recalled that it was on August 6, Faiz, dressed as an Arab, visited the prisoners in the district prison.
According to the CDR data, Faiz had called the mobile number of Muhammed Shafi (9562945872) on August 4.
On August 6, Faiz called the number before entering the jail at 2. 49 p.m. and after his exit at 3.1 p.m.
Shafi had also called the counsel and the connection was recharged by someone from outside the prison.
Going by the CDR data, Shafi talked extensively, up to 20 to 25 minutes, during all calls.
The cyber cell officials collected the CDR data of four mobile phones reportedly operated from the Kozhikode district prison by TPC undertrial prisoners between December 3, 2012 and December 3, 2013, according to sources.
The subscriber identity module (SIM) card of number 9847562679 used by Kirmani Manoj made over ten thousand calls, including international calls.
Another SIM card used by Muhammed Shafi (9562945872) was inserted in 17 mobile phones, according to the CDR details.
