5 held in Chhattisgarh's Rajnandgaon in connection with gold smuggling

The Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI)'s Raipur Unit on Monday arrested two persons and apprehended three persons in Chhattisgarh's Rajnandgaon district in connection with the foreign origin gold smuggling case and seized valuables worth Rs 42 crore, officials said.

DRI Raipur unit arrests two person and apprehended three persons in Foreign origin Gold Smuggling case. DRI Seized total 18.18 Kg Gold, 4545 Kgs Silver and Cash as sale proceed of Rs. 32.35 Lakh, official statement said.

In continuation of DRI's commitment in antismuggling and narcotics operations, based on specific intelligence, DRI apprehended two persons carrying foreign origin smuggled gold by train from Kolkata to Rajnandgaon. They were intercepted by DRI Officers at Raipur and foreign marked gold bars weighing 13.53 kilograms were recovered from them which was concealed by strapping the gold with help of cloth on the back.

In a follow-up operation, Rajnandgaon, Chhattisgarh, two persons who had come to collect the said smuggled gold and the final recipient (a jeweller) of the said foreign origin gold bars were also identified.

In search of the premises, of the Mohini Jeweller (Jeweller Jasraj Shanti Lal Baid) resulted in the recovery of Silver weighing 4545 kgs and gold bullion and its pieces weighing 4.65 kgs and cash as sale proceed Rs 32.35 lakh.

"These commodities and cash has been seized under Customs Act", informed an official statement by the DRI.

This operation has been conducted against the smuggling of gold and silver. In the said syndicate as of now, the role of five persons has been revealed. In past, this syndicated has smuggled foreign origin gold in huge quantities and evaded Customs duty and others Government dues.

Officers of DRI has worked day and night during Covid and lockdown with following all covid precautions.

In this operation, DRI was assisted by Chattisgarh police, Raipur Customs, Raipur CGST, Raipur RPF Officers.

Further investigation in the matter is underway.

( With inputs from ANI )