In a pan-Indian operation, the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) confiscated gold valued at 19 crore rupees from three sites and detained 11 people who were associated with a smuggling ring, an official said on Sunday.
According to the DRI, the gang smuggled gold into India over the border with Bangladesh and redirected it to Mumbai, Varanasi (Uttar Pradesh), Nagpur (in Maharashtra), and other locations.
After conducting a well-coordinated operation in Varanasi, Nagpur, and Mumbai on Friday and Saturday, the DRI busted the network responsible for smuggling foreign-origin gold by road and on trains, according to an official announcement.
Two gold carriers were captured by the DRI Nagpur squad on Friday evening as they exited an express train that had originated in Kolkata.
The crew found 8.5 kg of foreign-marked gold from the duo. Following their questioning, two people who received the illicit gold were also found and detained, according to the press release.
After a three-hour automobile chase and a search operation in a forest, the agency’s team in Varanasi and the local police successfully apprehended two further suspects.
It recovered 18.2 kg of gold from the two persons. The yellow metal was concealed in a cavity made below the handbrake of the car, the release said.
The Mumbai team managed to apprehend five accused on the city streets after they had travelled from Varanasi by train, carrying 4.9 kg gold, it stated.
Eleven persons were arrested in the operation, of whom five were apprehended in Mumbai, two in Varanasi and four in Nagpur, the release said.
The accused were carriers, passengers, handlers, and final recipients of the smuggled gold, it added.
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Source: NDTV
