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.
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Punjab Congress President Navjot Singh Sidhu on Friday proceeded on indefinite fast in support of his demand for action against Ashish Mishra, the son of Union Minister Ajay Mishra and main accused in Sunday's violence in which nine persons, including four farmers, were killed.
Following a tipoff, the DRI sleuths swooped on the port on October 4 and detected the huge narcotics contraband, valued at Rs 125 crore, among boxes of a cooking oil container arriving from Iran and are now probing the possibility of a bigger drug smuggling racket with international ramifications for India and other countries.
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The leaders have been demanding the arrest of Union Minister Ajay Kumar Mishra's son Ashish Mishra in connection with the death of farmers during the violence. Sidhu threatened to go on hunger strike if action is not taken against the minister's son by Friday.