Rs 3cr smuggled gold seized in Guwahati, Siliguri ops

TNN | Mar 1, 2018, Kolkata: Directorate of Revenue Intelligence has seized 9.1kg gold, valued at Rs 3.08 crore, in three separate hauls in Guwahati and Siliguri in the past seven days.

Altogether, six persons from Manipur, Punjab and West Bengal have been arrested under the Customs Act 1962. All three gold consignments that were seized had entered the country through the Indo-Myanmar border in Moreh, Manipur.

Acting on specific intelligence, DRI officers in Guwahati conducted two back-to-back operations and seized smuggled gold bars in Guwahati on February 23 and 24. In the first case, a person by the name of Md Kayamuddin from Manipur was apprehended in Fancy Bazar area with 22 gold bars of 3.6kg.

The next day, two passengers — Mann Singh and Manjit Singh — were intercepted on the Dibrugarh-New Delhi Rajdhani Express. They had boarded from Dimapur and were travelling to New Delhi. The search revealed 15 gold bars, nine concealed in the shoes of one passenger and six in the rectum of the other. The total weight of these 15 bars was 2.5kg.

In a separate case in Siliguri, three persons — Nitish Debnath, Rupam Sen and Pradip Debnath — were intercepted on the second-class compartment of Sealdah-bound Padatik Express around 8.50pm on February 23. A search revealed six gold bars and biscuits of foreign origin tucked in specially tailored cloth belts tied to their waist. The seized gold weighed 3.6kg.