DRI recovers gold worth Rs 10 crore, two arrested

Darjeeling: Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) sleuths apprehended two persons and recovered Rs 10 crore worth of gold from the rear axle of the vehicle they were travelling in. The two have been arrested. The incident occurred in Siliguri.

Working on a tip off the sleuths had laid a trap at Darjeeling More in Siliguri late on Monday night. They stopped a vehicle bearing Assam registration number. Two persons were travelling in the vehicle.

Thorough search did not reveal anything. However, when the vehicle was checked minutely the gold biscuits and bars were found hidden deftly in the hollow rear axle of the vehicle. Twenty-one-year-old Amir Khan of Lilong, Manipur and 24-year-old Mohammad Firoz of Thoubal, Manipur were arrested. Altogether, 101 gold biscuits each weighing 166 g along with 9 gold bars each weighing 1 kg was recovered.

On interrogation the duo revealed that the gold had been brought in from Moreh the border town in Myanmar bordering Manipur. The gold was then being taken to Siliguri via Assam. The gold was scheduled to be delivered to a businessman in Siliguri. The duo were produced at the Additional Chief Magistrate Court in Siliguri and remanded to police custody on Tuesday. They will be produced again in court on Wednesday.

In another incident Customs personnel recovered 1,38,700 US dollars from two persons from New Jalpaiguri station.

On conducting a raid in the general compartments of the Up Kanchenjunga Express the two persons were apprehended along a bag.

The bag had a special compartment where the dollar bills were hidden along with Rs. 25,000 in Indian currency. The two arrested in this case are Lalphan Pui (60 year old female) and her son Rohlu Puia (30 years) from Aizwal, Mizoram.

"There is a gold smuggling racket whereby gold is smuggled from Myanmar. Similarly the payment for snuggled gold had been given to the duo in Kolkata in US Dollars and the two were carrying the amount to Myanmar. We are investigating as to who made the payments and who it was scheduled to reach," stated Shyamal Majumdar, Superintendent, Preventive Unit, Naxalbari Customs Division.

The two were produced at a Siliguri court and were granted conditional bail against sureties of Rs. 5000 each. They have to appear in court after 14 days.