‘State police to crack down on gold smugglers’: CM Pinarayi Vijayan

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan has dismissed allegations that the state police are being slow in investigating gold smuggling and hawala transactions and said strict action will be taken against the offenders.

The CM not only dismissed PV Anvar MLA’s allegations of police’s links with gold smuggling mafia, but also read out a detailed list of police actions against gold smuggling. “It is the duty of the police to take action against gold smugglers and hawala bearers. The police have no intention of backing out of the investigation,” he told reporters at a press conference in Thiruvananthapuram on Saturday.

To debunk MP PV Anwar’s allegation of police links with the gold smuggling mafia, Pinarayi also read out a detailed list of police operations in which they seized smuggled gold and hawala money from Malappuram district.

“In 2022, the police had seized 79.9 kg of gold in 98 cases across the state. In 2023, 48 kg of gold was seized in 61 cases and in 2024, 18.1 kg was seized in 26 cases. A total of 147.79 kg of gold was seized in three years. In this case, the amount of gold seized in Malappuram was 124.47 kg. From 2020 till now, a total of Rs 122.5 crore was seized as hawala amount across the state and in this case, Rs 87.22 crore was seized in Malappuram,” he said.

This shows that a large amount of gold and hawala money has been smuggled through Karipur airport. “It is the responsibility of the government to stop this. Gold smuggling and hawala are crimes against the country. The police have been instructed to carry out strict inspections. There will be no compromise on this,” he added.