Gold biscuits seized in Manipur, two arrested

Gold bicuits, valued at Rs 3 crore, were seized in two separate incidents in border area of Manipur on Tuesday and two smugglers arrested, officials said.

In the first incident, 40 gold biscuits, weighing 6.64 kg and valued at Rs 2 crore, were seized near border town Moreh and the smuggler arrested, a Customs Department official said.

Assistant Commissioner, Customs, R.K. Dorendrajit said that they had received intelligence inputs about the movements of some smugglers and laid traps at Khudengthabi near Moreh.

The smuggler, identified as Mohammad Askar, 40, a resident of Mayang Imphal Begoon in Imphal West district, was found to have concealed the contraband gold in his mini truck which was coming from Moreh to Imphal bringing some legally permitted items.

Dorendrajit also said that his division has seized 26.5 kg of contraband gold, worth Rs 8.32 crore, from January this year.

In the second incident, troopers of 12 Assam Rifles manning the check point at Khudengthabi arrested another gold smuggler, identified as Mohammad Jallanuddin of Lilong in Thoubal district, who was transporting 3.316 kg of gold inside the fuel tank of a van.

--IANS

il/vd