Two held at Mumbai Airport with gold concealed in undergarments
Darpan News Desk IANS, 17 Jan, 2023 11:04 AM
Mumbai, Jan 17 (IANS) The Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) on Tuesday said that they arrested two persons at the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport here and seized 8.230 kgs of gold in paste form valued at Rs 4.54 crore.
The DRI said that they got specific intelligence input that gold in paste form is being smuggled into India by a syndicate of passengers who are traveling from Dubai to Mumbai on January 17.
"Surveillance was mounted by DRI officers at the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport. The suspected passengers were identified and intercepted by the team at the airport. A thorough examination of the passengers led to recovery of 8.230 kgs of gold in paste form. The value of the gold is about Rs 4.54 crore," an official said.
The DRI said that most of the recovered gold was concealed in undergarments of the passengers making it extremely difficult to detect. This is a unique modus operandi busted by the DRI, indicating the uphill task faced by its officers on a regular basis to check the syndicates smuggling gold in various forms into the country.
"Two persons have been arrested in the above case. Further investigation in the instant case is under progress to unravel the complete chain of persons involved in the illegal inflow of gold into the country," the official added.
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.
Several Supreme Court advocates on Monday claimed to have received an international call with a recorded message asking the apex court not to help the Central government by taking up a case connected with Prime Minister Narendra Modi's security breach in Punjab last week.
The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and the Congress are projected to poll 40 per cent and 36 per cent votes in Punjab, respectively, as per the ABP-CVOTER Battle for the States survey. The 117-member Punjab Assembly will go to the polls on February 14, and the counting of votes will be taken up on March 10.
The highest quantity has been procured from Punjab (1,86,85,53 MT) followed by Chhattisgarh (67,65,986 MT) and Telangana (65,54,739 MT) while the highest number of farmers benefitted in are Chhattisgarh (16,90,459), Telangana (9,67,134) and Punjab (9,24,299).
Hockey is one of the most popular sports in Punjab and many players from the state have been integral parts of the national team. The 117-member Punjab Assembly will go to the polls on February 14, while the counting of votes will be taken up on March 10.
The Supreme Court on Friday directed the Registrar General of Punjab and Haryana High Court to secure and preserve all records in connection with Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to Punjab, and also asked the state and Central committees to refrain from conducting inquiries till Monday, when it will take up the matter again.
