Gold smuggling: Involvement of Customs staffers at Mangaluru Airport raises eyebrows

coastaldigest.com web desk
November 1, 2018

Mangaluru, Nov 1: Customs employees at the Manglauru International Airport have once again come under the scanner after the involvement of two staffers in gold smuggling racket came to light recently.

Ashwin N V and Srikanth, both Customs hawaldars were recently arrested by the sleuths of the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) on charges of helping the gold smugglers at the airport. It is learnt that both of these officers had gained employment in the department on compassionate grounds.

Both the arrests come after the seizure of gold worth Rs 47 lakh from one Niyaz Khadar at the Airport on September 20. A resident of Mulleriya in Kasaragod, Khader was caught on his arrival here from Dubai.

After subjecting Khader to interrogation, the officials arrested Srikanth for helping the former and seized gold worth Rs 25 lakh from the latter’s residence.

The DRI officials, who continued the investigation, then arrested one Akbar Siddiq who was purchased the smuggled gold. During the interrogation, Siddiq spilled the beans on the involvement of hawaldar Ashwin, sources in the customs department said.

The involvement of insiders in gold smuggling had come to light at Mangaluru Airport in the past too. Department sources said that it would take strict action against the culprits after detailed investigation.

Comments

Well Wisher
 - 
Thursday, 1 Nov 2018

I had this doubt long back. How come people smuggle this much of gold with daring. If a normal passenger takes an 8 gms of gold, they try to harass him. What to do! Kachche din for India and Achche din for looters. Waw. what a cooperation between so-called Hindu namesakes and Muslim namesakes. Please hang them in public.

Respected CM Sir, please appoint some honest officers instead of such bullshit Veerappans. Honest like Singam Annamalai Sir. 

Jai Karnataka Jai Hind

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News Network
January 25,2020

Mandya, Jan 25: A woman committed suicide by jumping into Vishveshwaraiah Canal after throwing her two children into the canal near Thibbanahalli in the Taluk, police said on Saturday.

The deceased have been identified as Jyothi (33), Nisarga (7) and Pavan (4), of Hullenahalli.

According to police, the incident occurred on Friday.

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Charan Kumar | coastaldigest.com
June 24,2020

Bengaluru, June 24: City-based I Monetary Advisory (IMA), which duped thousands of families, mostly Muslims, in the name of halal investment, has become a bitter reality of "we were robbed by our own people". All the accused except its CEO Mohammad Mansoor Khan have been released on bail in this ponzi scam worth thousands of crores of rupees.

The scam has not only been investigated by SIT and CBI, but it has reverberated many times in the Assembly, corridors of power, and in the courts.

Around 80,000 investors are in trouble after the Monetary Advisory (IMA) scam came to light. Many investors have left this world, many families have split, many marriages have broken down and many have become unemployed, homeless, helpless and hapless. One of the senior IAS office, who had faced arrest in the scam, reportedly killed himself just a day ago.

It has been more than a year since this multi-billion scam came to light. But the affected families still do not see any ray of hope. The government, led by senior IAS officer Harsh Gupta, has set up a special competent authority to address investor grievances in the matter.

According to information provided by Harsh Gupta, investors have to be paid Rs 2,900 crore. But the value of the company's assets seized so far could be around Rs 450 crore. The process of auctioning the assets has not started yet. The authority has developed an online portal for submission of claim forms from investors. But the process of taking applications has not started yet. Syed Gulab, a social worker overseeing the case, says that after all the claim forms have been submitted, we will get a clear picture about the exact number of investors and the total amount of arrears. But this process may take a few more months to complete.

Senior journalist Maqbool Ahmed Siraj says that IMA has systematically deceived people in the name of halal investment through capital scheme. In 2006, Muhammad Mansoor Khan, a one-time small businessman, set up a company. He began to attract large number of investors by creating the greed for more profit among middle class and poor people.

By 2015, the company had received money from more than 12,000 investors and continued to pay monthly profits. By the time the company closed in 2019, 80,000 people had invested their hard-earned money here. In Bengaluru, the company expanded its reach by investing in two major gold showrooms, hospitals, schools, several medical stores, a publishing center, a supermarket, and real estate firm.

Mr Siraj says that Mansoor Khan and his team not only lured the poor and middle class to pursue their own interests but also created a favourable atmosphere for their so called business by winning the hearts of politicians, government officials, clerics, religious institutions and media.

Unsuspecting people invested their money in a bid to make more profit in less time. When the company stopped making profits and Mansoor Khan suddenly fled on June 9, 2019, the investors woke up the to the reality.

Apart from residents of Bengaluru and other parts of Karnataka, people from Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Maharashtra other states also have invested their money.

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coastaldigest.com news network
June 29,2020

Mangaluru, June 29: As many as 32 fresh covid positive cases were reported in Dakshina Kannada today. In Udupi 18 new positive cases were reported. 

In Dakshina Kannada out of the 32 positive cases, one had returned from another state. Ten persons had contracted the disease from patient number 9590, 10274, 10275, 9739, 9589, 12384 and 10582.

Nine persons are suffering from influenza-like illness (ILI), and Six others are suffering from Severe Acute Respiratory Infection. The health officials are tracing the contacts of five others.

In Udupi, out of 18 positive cases, 5 had travelled from Maharashtra, four had travelled from Bangaluru and nine others had contracted the virus from the COVID Positive patients.

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