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.
A spokesperson for the Chief Minister's Office said the Secretary, Food, Civil Supplies, briefed the Cabinet about the status of the ongoing procurement. It was informed that 14.9 lakh metric tons of wheat had arrived in the mandis out of which more than 12 lakh metric tons had already been purchased.
The deceased, Sarabjit Singh Brar, was a resident of Laburnum Apartments at DLF Phase 1 in Gurugram. At the time of the incident that occured on Wednesday morning, Brar was at his flat along with his wife.
Joining the issue, newly-appointed state Congress chief Amrinder Singh Raja Warring targeted Mann over the Centre's interfering in the state's law and order matters in the context of the Punjab Governor's visits to the border areas.
On examination of their check-in-baggage, 43 gold cut-bits of 24k purity, weighing 2.493 kg and valued at Rs 1.20 crore, were found wrapped around laptop chargers with adhesive tapes.
The incident took place at Kusupur village in the state's Cuttack district. Accused Shiba Prasad Sahoo (42) confessed to the crime through a video message and sent it to his village sarpanch and few others. He later surrendered before Balichandrapur police in Jajpur district.
According to a source, the meeting continued for two hours around and both CMs discussed how to give free 300 units of electricity in Punjab - as promised by the party in its election campaign.