Court asks flight attendant, friend to appear before DRI

KOCHI: The Kerala high court on Monday directed a flight attendant and her friend - who are accused in the Karipur gold smuggling case - to appear before the directorate of revenue intelligence (DRI) office in Kozhikode on Tuesday.
A division bench comprising Justices K M Joseph and A K Jayasankaran Nambiar was considering petitions filed by flight attendant Hiromasa V Sebastian and her friend Rahila Cheerayi questioning preventive detention orders issued under COFEPOSA.
Last week, DRI had alleged that they have gone into hiding after securing bail from a session's court.
Hiromasa and Rahila were booked after they were found to be in possession of gold bars weighing three kilograms each when they landed at Karipur airport on November 8, 2013. Bails granted to them by the session's court are under strict conditions and preventive detention under these circumstances is unnecessary, they had argued in the petition.
Conditions imposed by the session's court included directions like not to leave the state, not to go to any airports and to appear before the investigating officer on all Mondays.
DRI's counsel C P Udayabhanu had told the court that the petitioners failed to abide by the conditions and they are engaged in illegal activities after being released on bail. They haven't been appearing before the investigating officer, as directed by the court, for over a month and they couldn't be found at home, the DRI had claimed.
During Monday's hearing, counsel for the petitioners submitted that his clients are not in hiding. The court directive to appear before the DRI was issued following this submission