Gold worth Rs 1.65 crore seized in Manipur, Bengal

The Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) has seized around 5.3 kg of gold worth Rs 1.65 crore smuggled from Myanmar in two separate seizures from Manipur and West Bengal's Siliguri, the agency said on Thursday.

Acting on inputs, DRI sleuths intercepted a vehicle at Khudenthabi on the Moreh-Imphal road in Manipur and recovered 20 gold bars weighing 3.3 kg in total. The gold bars, valued at Rs 1.02 core, were found concealed in the fuel tank of the vehicle on Monday.

"The driver Md Gayasuddin of Lilong has been arrested under the Customs Act and placed under judicial custody. He has confessed that these gold bars were smuggled from Myanmar through Moreh in Manipur," a DRI release said.

In a separate catch, 2 kgs of gold valued at 63.27 lakh were seized from a person at New Jalpaiguri Railway Station in Siliguri on Tuesday.

DRI sleuths recovered the gold bars from Firoz Sekh of West Bengal, while he was about to travel in the Sealdah bound Padatik Express.

The DRI has seized close to 142 kg of gold and gold jewellery valued at nearly Rs 26 crores from West Bengal and northeast India in the current financial year. The smuggled gold is mainly coming from Bangladesh, Myanmar, Bhutan and even from China, the release said.

--IANS

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