Four held with gold worth Rs 5 crore on Vibhuti Express: DRI

DRI sleuths have arrested four men from an express train for allegedly smuggling gold worth Rs five crore, according to an official statement issued today.
All the four persons arrested are residents of Varanasi.
The officials of the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) initially intercepted three persons - Ramesh Kumar Verma, Ashutosh Gupta and Anurag Kumar Pathak - on Vibhuti Express at Howrah station after the accused boarded the train for Varanasi on Friday, it said.
During search, a total of 10.60kg gold of foreign origin, valued at Rs 3.36 crore, was seized from them.
The three men had concealed the gold in specially-made cloth belts tied around their waist, the statement said.

More than Rs 4 lakh in Indian currency was seized from them, it said.

In a follow-up action, another person - Gyan Chand Verma - of the syndicate was arrested on the same train at Patna railway station on Saturday.
The sleuths seized 5.1 kg gold of foreign origin valued at Rs 1.62 crore from Verma, the statement said.
Thus, a total of 15.7 kg gold of foreign origin valued at Rs 4.98 crore emanating from Kolkata was seized, it said.
In the current financial year, starting from April 1, 2017 to till date, the DRI has seized more than 238 kg of gold valued at close to Rs 70 crore in the market from West Bengal and the northeastern states.

The gold was being smuggled from Bangladesh, Burma and Bhutan.