Lko DRI unearths countrywide gold, silver smuggling racket

TWO PEOPLE WERE HELD WITH THREE KILOGRAMS OF FOREIGN ORIGIN GOLD WORTH ₹1.5 CRORE, WHILE TRAVELLLING IN A BUS IN PRAYAGRAJ ON MONDAY

LUCKNOW: With the arrest of two people from Prayagraj, the Lucknow unit of the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) on Monday unearthed a country wide nexus of businessman involved in smuggling of gold and silver from foreign countries, said a senior DRI official here on Tuesday.

The official said the two people were arrested with three kilograms of foreign origin gold worth ₹1.5 crore, while travellling in a bus in Prayagraj on Monday. He said the information they revealed led to seizure of 243 kilograms of foreign origin silver bars and ₹ 29 lakh in cash from the house of a businessman in Nagpur, Maharashtra.

He said the identity of the two accused and the Nagpur businessman would not be revealed during the course of investigation.

Sharing further details, the official said the duo was arrested after piecing together intelligence inputs from different sources. He said the two accused were rigorously interrogated during which they revealed that they worked as carriers (those who carry along smuggled items secretly) for a nexus of businessman who were into smuggling of foreign origin gold and silver.

He said the two accused had hidden the three gold bars (weighing 1 kg each) inside their shoes and were travelling in the bus as normal passengers from Prayagraj to Nagpur. He said they had plans to keep changing their buses through the entire route of around 650 kilometres.

The official said the two accused had been booked for carrying illegal gold and further search was on in Nagpur and other places on after the huge haul of silver bars in Nagpur.