Crime branch files case into ‘missing’ gold seized by CBI

CHENNAI: Acting on the direction of the Madras high court, the Crime Branch- CID (CBCID) in Chennai has registered a case in connection with the ‘missing’ 103.8 kg gold seized by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) during a raid from an importer.

According to a senior CBCID official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, insolvency professional and liquidator C Ramasubramaniama filed a complaint about the missing gold, following which a case was registered under Section 380 (theft) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) on December 23. The following day, the FIR was sent to a special court for CBCID in the city.

The Surana group, an industrial house based in Chennai, had recently alleged that 103.8 kg of gold seized by the CBI in 2012 from it had gone missing from sealed vaults kept on the company’s premises under the CBI’s lock and seal. The CBI had confiscated 400.47 kg of bullion and ornaments during searches carried out at the office of Surana Corporation in Chennai in 2012 in a case pertaining to alleged favours extended by officials of the Minerals and Metals Trading Corporation of India (MMTC) to the firm for import of gold and silver.

When the vaults, kept in the company’s premises, were opened between February 27 and 29 this year in the presence of bank officials and the official liquidator for Surana, the seized gold was 103 kg short, but the CBI seals were still seen intact.

The case became public knowledge earlier this month when the Madras high court was hearing a petition filed by Ramasubramaniam, seeking a direction to the CBI to handover the remaining 103.8 kg gold.

The CBI told the court that it handed over 72 keys of the safes and vaults to the principal special court for CBI’s cases in Chennai. “This court is unable to state with certainty that they have handed over the keys,” said justice P N Prakash and ordered a CBCID probe into the case on December 11. The following day, the CBI released a statement clarifying its role. “The inventorised gold was not kept in Malkhana of CBI. Rather, it was in premises of Surana only under the seal,” the investigating agency’s statement read. “While the enquiry was on, the petition was filed in high court. CBI’s internal enquiry continues and if any adverse role of any CBI officials surfaces, strict action will be taken against them.”

The CBI also offered an explanation for the discrepancy in weights. During the seizure, the gold bars were weighed alltogether but while handing over to the liquidator, appointed for a settlement of debts between Surana and SBI (State Bank Of India), it was weighed individually, the CBI had claimed.

During the course of the investigation, the CBI concluded that the gold did not have a bearing on a corruption case, but that it had been imported in violation of the Foreign Trade Policy. While prosecuting the case, the CBI accused MMTC officials of showing undue favour to Surana in importing gold and silver.

THE CBI HAD CONFISCATED 400.47 KG OF BULLION AND ORNAMENTS DURING SEARCHES CARRIED OUT AT THE OFFICE