20 kilogram of gold seized, 5 Bhutan nationals held from New Delhi stn

NEWDELHI: The Directorate of Revenue Intelligence ( DRI) on Wednesday seized more than 20 kilograms of gold, worth ₹6 crore and sourced from Australia and South Africa, from the New Delhi railway station.

Stating that six Bhutanese nationals have been arrested for their involvement in the crime, DRI officials said the gold was smuggled i nto the country through the Indo-bhutan border.

Senior DRI officials said the gold was to be supplied to markets such as Kucha Mahajani in Old Delhi and Karol Bagh.

“On Wednesday, an operation was carried out at New Delhi railway station on the basis of a tipoff. Our men intercepted two Bhutanese passengers who had arrived in Delhi via a train from West Bengal. The officers found gold bars concealed in a cloth belt that the two men were wearing around their waists. A total of 10kg foreign-marked gold was seized. The market value of the recovered gold is ₹3.13 crore,” a senior DRI officer said.

The officer said that on the same day, other officers of the directorate intercepted three other Bhutanese men who had arrived at New Delhi railway station from West Bengal in another train. “On searching them, 10.2 kilos of foreign-marked gold, worth ₹3.26 crore, was recovered from them. The trio was also wearing gold in handmade cloth belts,” the officer said on condition of anonymity.

The DRI officials said there has been a spurt in the number of seizures of gold being smuggled into India from China, Myanmar and Bhutan via the land border. According to a recent data, in 2016-17, DRI had seized 1.42 tonne of gold. In 2017-18, it grew to 3.13 tonne. In 2018-19, between April and October, a total of 2.20 tonne of gold has been seized.

Last week, a cache of 33 kg gold from Switzerland and China was seized at New Delhi railway station and two Indian and one Bhutanese national were arrested. NEWDELHI: The municipal corporations of Delhi (MCDS) has bagged the 52nd rank in the World Bank’s recently released ease of doing business list pertaining to construction permits. Last year, the Delhi civic agencies were at the 181st position, a statement issued by the South Delhi Municipal Corporation (SDMC) revealed.

According to civic officials, SDMC was the nodal agency for carrying out the required effec- tive changes under the “ease of doing business” pertaining to construction permits.

The officials, however, maintained that Mumbai’s civic body had tied with them in the 52nd place in the list pertaining to building construction permit.

“The municipal corporations of Delhi strived hard to carry forward the process of reforms pertaining to construction permits throughout the year … it has shown remarkable improvement from last year ranking of 181 to ranking of 52 this year,” the statement said.

THE DRI OFFICIALS SAID THERE HAS BEEN A SPURT IN THE NUMBER OF SEIZURES OF GOLD BEING SMUGGLED INTO INDIA FROM CHINA, MYANMAR AND BHUTAN VIA THE LAND BORDER