KOCHI : As pictures surfaced showing Manorama channel reporter Ayyappadas along with culprits in the ongoing gold smuggling case, the journalist explained himself in a FaceBook post saying, the photo was taken in Dubai. Strangely, Ayyappadas does not account for why he was in company with Muhammad Shaffi - one the key accused in the case.
The journalist also claims some memory lapse in the matter. “I don’t remember this man, though I might have seen him some time” Ayyappadas says in the post. “While on tour in news reporting, one comes across several people and wouldn’t remember much of that, ” he added.
Muhammad Shaffi played key role in the smuggling operations and also happens to be a Muslim League worker.
Also, there happens to be more than one picture featuring Shaffi alongside Ayyappadas.
NIA had nabbed Shaffi a few days into the investigation, when they began looking up the terror-funding aspect of case.
