West Bengal crime: Smuggled gold worth Rs 8 Cr seized in Siliguri and six persons arrested from Manipur

Siliguri, May 14 (UNI) Smuggled gold worth Rs 8 crore from Myanmar have been seized from six persons, arrested from a bus in this commercial town of north Bengal, the gateway of northeast, sources at the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) said here today.

The gold, weighing about 24,150 kgs, valued at close to Rs 8 crores, was seized during a frisking of a bus on Monday evening and six persons from Manipur, have been arrested under the Customs Act, 1962.

DRI sources claimed the arrest and seizure of smuggled gold from Myanmar though Manipur was major blow to the smuggling racket in the region.

Gold bars (20 pieces, each of 1 kg) and gold biscuits (25 pieces, about 166 gms each)were seized from the possession of six persons who were travelling by bus from Manipur to Siliguri via Coochbehar on Monday.

The seized yellow metal had been smuggled into India from Myanmar through the porous Indo-Myanmar border at Moreh in Manipur.

The six apprehended persons -- Md. Numan, Md. Lukuman, Hafiz Misbahuddin, Md. Zamil Ahmed, Md. Dawood Akhtar and M. M. Washim Khan, are all residents of Manipur and are engaged in carrying smuggled foreign origin gold for quite some time now, DRI officials said.

During the last financial year DRI has seized over 464 kgs of gold within the geographical precincts of West Bengal and Sikkim, smuggled from Bangladesh, Myanmar, Nepal, Bhutan and even China, valued at Rs.145.69 crore in as many as 46 cases.