DRI’s Sikkim wing seizes gold bars worth Rs2 cr, 2 held

The arrested youths identified as Tlagmuanchanga and Delsuankhai, are residents of Sagaing in Myanmar 

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TT Correspondent   |   Siliguri   |    06.09.22 : The Siliguri wing of the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) has arrested two suspected smugglers, both  residents of Myanmar, after gold bars estimated at around Rs 2.4 crore were seized from their possession on Sunday.

Some fake documents have also been seized from the duo, DRI sources said.

The arrested youths have been identified as Tlagmuanchanga and Delsuankhai, both residents of Sagaing in Myanmar.

“The DRI team intercepted the duo near Tenzing Norgay Central Bus Terminus here on Sunday afternoon. Initially, both claimed that they had reached Siliguri from Aizawl of Manipur. However, none of them could provide any valid identity proof,” said a source.

“They were taken to the DRI office and as they were frisked, the gold bars were recovered from their footwear. One of them was carrying 11 pieces of the bars, while the other had 18 such pieces. Twenty nine pieces of gold bars, weighing 4.814 kilos, were seized from them. The estimated price of the seized gold is Rs 2.42 crore,” he added.

“The duo seems to be associated with a gold smuggling racket and they were supposed to deliver the illegal consignment somewhere in India,” the source said. 

On Monday, the suspected smugglers were produced at a local court in Siliguri and were sent to judicial custody for 14 days.

In another incident, troops of 98 battalion of the Border Security Force (BSF) posted at the India-Bangladesh border in Cooch Behar district apprehended two Bangladeshi residents on Monday.

An Indian resident, who is suspected to be a tout and helps people in infiltration, was also nabbed.

Sources said the trio was picked up from near a hospital in Mekhliganj town when the tout was ferrying the Bangladeshis on his motorcycle towards Siliguri.

The trio and the bike, also their cell phones, have been handed over to Mekhliganj police. Those arrested have been identified as Manjoor Alam and Noor Alam, residents of Baliadangi of Thakurganj district in Bangladesh, and Pushnath Roy, who hails from Chotofafri village in Jalpaiguri district.

The BSF also carried out raids from Saturday to Monday in different locations under the north Bengal frontier and seized a number of contraband items including cattle, cough syrup bottles and tortoise skins. The cost of the seized items, which were supposed to be smuggled to Bangladesh, is Rs 11.75 lakh.