Gujarat man who smuggled 761 kg of gold over 5 years nabbed

Bhargav Tanti had smuggled 761 kilograms of gold worth around Rs 200 crore from Dubai to Ahmedabad through the air route between 2013 and 2018. He was nabbed on Wednesday.

Ahmedabad (Gujarat): A man accused of smuggling 761 kilograms of gold worth around Rs 200 crore from Dubai to Ahmedabad through the air route between 2013 and 2018 was arrested on Wednesday, police said.

Bhargav Tanti, absconding for more than a year, was nabbed by the Ahmedabad police's crime branch from Amreli district, an official release said here. Tanti was absconding ever since the Customs department in June 2019 unearthed a racket wherein it was revealed that gold worth Rs 1,300 crore was smuggled into the city in five years, said the release.

While several persons involved in the racket were nabbed last year, Tanti, a resident of the Nikol area here, and a few others were still out of police's clutches. The Customs department had issued a warrant under COFEPOSA (the Conservation of Foreign Exchange and Prevention of Smuggling Activities Act) and asked the city police to locate and detain Tanti, said the crime branch release.

Based on a specific tip-off, a team of the crime branch nabbed Tanti from Ingorala village in Amreli district, it said. He was later handed over to the Krushnanagar police in the city for further procedures, said the release.

It is alleged that Tanti, as a carrier, smuggled 761 kilogram of gold worth around Rs 200 crore between 2013 and 2018 during 46 air trips from Dubai to Ahmedabad. He was part of a gang which had smuggled around 4,000 kg of gold worth Rs 1,300 crore during those five years, said the release.

In June last year, two persons were apprehended by Customs officials at the Ahmedabad International Airport for trying to smuggle 24.5 kg of gold bars worth Rs 8.20 crore brought from Dubai, it said. One of the accused was a contract employee of a ground handling agency working at the Sardar Vallabhbhai
International Airport, while the other was a carrier who arrived on a flight from Dubai, the release said.

It was alleged that the contract employee was part of the racket and helped carriers to safely take the gold out of the busy airport.

PTI