8 arrested for smuggling 24.4 kg gold into India through Bangladesh border

The Indian Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) on Monday said that its personnel have arrested eight individuals for smuggling gold through the Bangladesh border hidden in strips in the false cavities of vehicles.

The DRI at the time seized 24.4 kg of gold worth 14 crore rupee, reports Livemint.

The strips were also hidden in specially-tailored waist belts worn by each of them. Eight individuals of the syndicate were identified and in a simultaneous and well-coordinated operation at three locations all of them were captured red-handed.

DRI teams have been strategically placed at different locations in the states of West Bengal, Assam and Tripura including at the Indo-Bangladesh border so that the modus operandi used by the smuggling syndicate can be under surveillance at all times to prevent such crimes.

"The Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) 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 Indo-Bangladesh border in the state of Tripura," the Ministry of Finance said in a statement.

The DRI revealed that the team at Siliguri apprehended four people, while they were travelling in a train from Badarpur Junction in Assam to Sealdah, at Dalkhola Railway Station in West Bengal and recovered 90 gold strips from their possession weighing 18.66 kg, worth ₹10.66 crores.

The smuggler apprehended at Agartala was driving a four-wheeler near Indo-Bangladesh border. The DRI team found two gold bars weighing 2.25 kg, valued at 1.30 crore rupee, clandestinely concealed in a particular cavity built under the driver-side front door.

The group of three that were apprehended at Karimganj in Assam were travelling in a train from Agartala to Sealdah and seized eight bars of gold weighing 3.50 kg valued at 2.03 crore rupee, from their possession.

"In the said operation, smuggled gold cumulatively weighing 24.4 kg, valued at 14 crore rupee, was seized and all the eight apprehended persons were arrested," the ministry said.

The all-India gold seizure by the DRI in this financial year has crossed 1000 kg.