New Delhi: The north eastern border areas witnessed a spurt in gold smuggling, said Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) on Wednesday.
The Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) official said that the recent gold seizures in the North East indicated a spurt in smuggling of gold through NE borders of Bangladesh and Myanmar.
11 cases of gold seizures of 121 kg in September showed the NE corridor is still extensively being used for gold smuggling.
Acting on specific intelligence and in three coordinated interceptions at Patna, Delhi and Mumbai, Directorate of Revenue Intelligence seized 65.46 kg of foreign origin gold worth Rs 33.40 crore.
The gold was consigned from Aizwal to Mumbai in domestic courier consignment. The gold was concealed in gunny bags declared as clothes.
In yet another case of smuggling through the same route, the DRI seized another big haul of smuggled foreign origin gold weighing around 23.23 kg and valued at Rs.11.65 crore.
Specific intelligence showed that substantial quantity of foreign origin gold will be attempted to be smuggled from Champhai-Aizawl, Mizoram to Kolkata in vehicle.
The DRI officers mounted surveillance on the highway connecting Siliguri – Guwahati. The officers identified four passengers, travelling in 2 suspect vehicles . After thorough rummaging of the two vehicles, they recovered 23.23 Kg gold concealed in the vehicle in the form of 21 cylindrical pieces.
The gold in this case was cast in order to fit in the specifically made cavity inside the cross-member metal pipe connecting the right and left rails of chassis behind the rear wheels and suspension in both the vehicles.
The recovered gold had been smuggled into India from Myanmar through Zokhawthar border in Mizoram. Four persons have been arrested in the instant case so far.
In another 9 cases in the month, DRI recovered and seized 27 kg smuggled gold form various carriers coming from North-Eastern part of the country to the rest of the country. These series of detections have helped unearth novel modus operandi of smuggling foreign origin gold into India from the North-Eastern part of the country.
Further investigation is in progress.
