Hyderabad:Sleuths from the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) have recovered at least 9 kg and 700 grams of smuggled gold from a quintet in two separate incidents on Wednesday and Thursday. In both the instances, the yellow metal was smuggled via the train route. The total value of the seized gold is worth Rs 5.53 crore.
DRI said it has arrested those who were carrying the precious metal and are probing to find out their links to the racket to which they belong to. On March 9, the DRI personnel picked up a trio who were traveling from Kolkata at Secunderabad Railway Station based on an intelligence input.
A preliminary search in their belongings did not lead to recovery of anything. The DRI officials who had specific inputs decided to frisk their belongings further. The passengers were carrying the gold in a secret compartment inside their luggage trolley which was hidden from plain sight. The officials recovered as much as 2.3 kg which is valued about Rs 1.32 crore in the bullion. The trio that arrived on Falaknuma Express was subsequently placed under arrest.
In a similar exercise carried out On March 8, the DRI sleuths who were laying on wait at Srikakulam Railway Station based on specific inputs and nabbed a duo that was on Howrah Express. A search on their personal belongings led to recovery of as much as 7.4 kg of gold which is worth Rs 4.21 crore in the open market.
Sources indicated that both the incidents have connections to the Bangladesh cartels which are pushing the gold into the mainstream bullion market without paying the necessary taxes. The gold which goes into the system gets sold as legitimately imported gold in the jewelry market. The porous borders of West Bengal and Bangladesh are used to smuggle it to enter the Indian territory. It then gets pushed into the hinterlands in the South via the train route before it reaches the jeweller, the senior police official privy to the investigation gold smugglings added.
