Gold in meat slicer: Customs officials search house of suspect in Kochi
Darpan News Desk IANS, 26 Apr, 2022 10:31 AM
Kochi, April 26 (IANS) Customs officials on Tuesday arrived at the house of a local politician as a follow-up in the case of smuggling gold concealed in a meat slicer.
The Customs officials got a tip-off three days back of gold being smuggled in from the Middle East, concealed in a meat slicer.
The packet had come through the cargo to Sirajudeen on April 17, and on Monday a person named Naukul had come to take it.
The Customs officials allowed the baggage to be cleared before taking the person into custody from outside the clearing house.
The officials used a gas cutter to open the meat slicer and recovered 2.26 kg of gold stacked inside the machine.
The Customs officials are yeat to nab Sirajudeen.
On Tuesday, the Customs officials raided the house of A.A. Ebrahim Kutty, the vice-chairman of the Thrikakara Municipality, as a follow-up investigation in the same case as they suspect the alleged involvement of his son in the smuggling racket cracked on Monday.
Channi expressed regret while participating in a virtual meeting chaired by Prime Minister Modi with Chief Ministers and Lieutenant Governors/Administrators of states and UTs to review the prevailing Covid situation as well as the ongoing vaccination drive.
Unveiling the first set of plans in his Punjab Model with focus on resurrection of Punjab, Sidhu, in the absence of Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi and his Cabinet colleagues, told the media here: "Punjab Model is people's model, an effort to give a roadmap to return power to people."
Union Minister Hardeep Singh Puri on Tuesday said that he "personally" feels that alliance with the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) in Punjab had cost the BJP heavily.
India on Tuesday recorded 1,68,063 new Covid cases, taking the total tally to 8,21,446. Although the fresh infections were 6.4 per cent less than Monday when the country logged 1,79,723, the weekly positivity rate has climbed to 8.85 per cent and the daily positivity rate has declined to 10.64 per cent. On the other hand, 4,461 Omicron cases were recorded from 28 states.
Delhi reported a 25 per cent surge in Covid-19 cases after recording 19,166 fresh cases. With this, the infection tally has climbed to 15,68,896. Meanwhile, the city has recorded 17 Covid deaths on the second consecutive day, pushing the death toll to 25,177.
On Monday, after a detailed hearing in the matter, a bench, headed by Chief Justice N.V. Ramana and comprising Justices Surya Kant and Hima Kohli, said the court will set up a committee headed by a retired top court judge to probe the PM's security breach and asked both the Centre and Punjab government to not move ahead with their respective inquiries into the matter.
