DRI seeks custody of six men held in gold smuggling case

A local court today issued a notice to the special operation group (SOG) of city crime branch on a plea of Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) seeking a transfer warrant for the custody of six persons arrested in connection with smuggling of 60kg gold.
DRI has maintained in its application that only they can probe the case since it is related to smuggling of gold, as per the Customs Act 1962.
"According to sections 132 (business related to customs) and 135 (smuggling) of the Customs Act 1962, DRI is the only competent authority to probe the case," the agency's counsel Sudheer Gupta said in his argument.

Following this, Additional Metropolitan Magistrate of Ahmedabad B D Goswami issued a notice to SOG and posted the matter for further hearing on March 9.
The SOG had apprehended six persons from Sardar Patel international airport in the city on February 25 and seized 60 kgs of gold, including 60 gold biscuits, worth Rs 16.50 crore in the biggest haul of smuggled gold this year.
The gold was allegedly smuggled from Dubai by Cliphord Anthony Fostine De'Costa, Sapna Dipakbhai--both from Mumbai-- and Virendrasingh Karamveersingh Sultan from Haryana, according to a statement issued by SOG.
Three others, who were arrested when they came to collect the consignment of gold, are identified as Jayvirsingh Shamshersingh and Kapil Jagdevsingh, both from Delhi, and their driver Dinesh Harji Desai who is from Gujarat.