Mangaluru, Feb 11: The sleuths of the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI), nabbed two persons each at Mangaluru International Airport and Mangaluru Junction Railway Station and seized gold worth over Rs 1 crore from them on Saturday.
A couple hailing from Kasaragod, were arrested at the Airport for trying to smuggle 2.13kgs of gold concealed in a specifically made abdominal belt worn by them under their clothes.
In a separate incident, two passengers who smuggled 16 gold biscuits from Nepal by concealing them in the inner pocket of their pants, were nabbed from a Kozhikode bound train at the railway station.
Vinayak Bhat, deputy director, DRI Mangaluru regional unit, said that all the four all accused were produced before the jurisdictional chief judicial magistrate, Mangaluru on Sunday. Further investigations are in progress in both cases.
The DRI had received information about Kasaragod residents Hassan and Sameera arriving by Spicejet Flight SG-60 from Dubai to MIA, with undeclared gold. On arrival of the aircraft, the couple were identified and intercepted at customs green channel and subjected to thorough checking. During frisking, it was revealed that both were carrying skin coloured belts tied to their waist.
The belts were found to be concealed with heavy objects. On opening them it was found certain brown coloured rubber like compound was stuffed inside. The expert jeweller examined the compound and it was subsequently taken to gold testing extraction centre where under supervision of DRI officers and independent witnesses, gold was extracted. At the end, gold of 23.99 carat purity weighing 2137.04 gms was extracted from the said compound.
Their current market value was placed at around Rs 66 lakh, Vinayak Bhat said, adding DRI officers subsequently seized the contraband gold under the provisions of the Customs Act, 1962. The passengers who happened to be husband and wife were arrested and produced before the chief judicial magistrate, Mangaluru and were later released on conditional bail, Bhat said, adding DRI sleuths are investigating this modus operandi of smuggling gold into India
In another incident, two passengers travelling from Panvel to Kozhikode on Marusagar Express were nabbed at Mangaluru Junction Railway station. During their personal examination, the officers found heavy objects around the waist band of their trousers. On cutting open inside stitch of the waist band, 16 gold bars (eight gold bars each) were recovered. The duo Moideen and Samsudheen admitted gold bars recovered from their possession were of foreign origin.
They had smuggled it during their travel from Dubai to Kathmandu a few days ago. During interrogation, they added after getting cleared from Kathmandu International Airport they crossed land border at Birganj and entered India. Subsequently, they undertook several cut journeys by road and train and on Saturday, boarded Marusagar Express at Panvel. DRI officers seized 16 gold bars of foreign origin weighing 1865.6 grams valued at Rs 56,33,880 under mahazar.
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