Gold worth Rs 10.7 crore seized from smugglers near Siliguri

A team of DRI officials from Siliguri seized 18.66 kg of gold worth Rs 10.66 crore that was smuggled through the India-Bangladesh border and arrested four persons, while they were travelling in a train from Badarpur Junction in Assam to Sealdah at Dalkhola Railway Station in West Bengal. The gold was in the form of strips which were hidden in specially-tailored waist belts worn by each of them, according to information provided by the finance ministry today.

Simultaneously two other teams of the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) at Agartala in Tripura and Karimganj in Assam also launched raids on smugglers in these areas and made gold seizures.

The DRI team at Agartala apprehended one person who was driving a four-wheeler near the India-Bangladesh border in Agartala and found two gold bars weighing 2.25 kg, valued at Rs 1.30 crore, clandestinely concealed in a special cavity built under the driver side front door, the official statement said.

The third DRI team of DRI at Karimganj in Assam apprehended three persons while they were travelling in a train from Agartala to Sealdah and seized eight bars of gold weighing 3.50 kg valued at Rs 2.03 crore, from their possession.

According to the official statement, the DRI had launched an operation codenamed ‘Operation Eastern Gateway’, which involved developing the intelligence over a substantial period of time to bust the smuggling modus operandi. A syndicate based in Bangladesh, Tripura, Assam and West Bengal was smuggling huge quantities of Gold from Bangladesh to India through the India- Bangladesh border in Tripura.

In the operation, various teams of DRI were strategically placed at different locations in the states of West Bengal, Assam and Tripura including at India-Bangladesh border so that the modus operandi used by the smuggling syndicate could be unearthed.

On the basis of intelligence inputs, 8 persons of the syndicate were identified and in a simultaneous and well-coordinated operation at three locations all the 8 persons were apprehended red-handed.