Rs 3cr gold seized, glare on Myanmar link

TT , 19 Nov 2018, Siliguri: The Directorate of Revenue Intelligence has arrested a resident of Hooghly district with 10kg of gold.

A DRI team intercepted Raju Adash from a Calcutta bound train at New Jalpaiguri station on Saturday evening.

"In total, 56 pieces of gold bars weighing 9.296 kg, have been seized from him. The bars seem to have been smuggled from Myanmar and were brought in from Assam's Manipur. The price of the seized gold is over Rs 3 crore," said a source in DRI.

Adash, 33, hails from Mukundapur in Hooghly, the sources informed.

"Acting on the tip-off, our team waited at the NJP station. As the Kamrup Express arrived, we conducted raid in one of the coaches and intercepted Adash. We took him to our office where he was frisked. He was carrying 38 gold bars in a specially tailored waist belt and another 18 bars inside his shoes. He had received the cache of gold from a person in Manipur. The consignment was supposed to The gold bars seized by the DRI on Saturday be delivered in Calcutta," added the source.

In past two years, around 480kg of gold had been seized in and around Siliguri.

DRI officials have time and again maintained that India Bhutan and India-Myanmar borders were used by the smugglers to bring in the gold.

On October 27 this year, the DRI had made one of its major seizures so far, when they arrested two residents of Maharashtra and recovered 55kg of gold worth Rs 18.66 crore.

"The seizures indicate that gold smugglers are operating through northeast and north Bengal to send their consignments in other parts of India. This is because of the proximity to international borders, particularly Myanmar, from where, gold is mostly smuggled to India," said an official.