DRI seizes over 24 kg gold smuggled from Bangladesh, arrests eight accused
Feb 13, 2023
New Delhi [India], February 13 : Under its 'Operation Eastern Gateway', the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) has arrested eight persons for allegedly smuggling gold from the Bangladesh border and seized 24.4 kg gold worth Rs 14 crore.
A syndicate based in Bangladesh, Tripura, Assam and West Bengal was smuggling huge quantities of gold from the neighbouring country to India through the Indo-Bangla border in the state of Tripura, an official release said on Monday.
The DRI has launched an operation codenamed 'Operation Eastern Gateway', which involved developing the intelligence over a substantial period of time to bust the smuggling modus operandi, the release said.
In the operation, the revenue intelligence agency teams were strategically placed at different locations in the states of West Bengal, Assam and Tripura including at the Indo-Bangladesh border so that the modus operandi used by the smuggling syndicate could be unearthed, it said.
Based on intelligence inputs, eight persons of the syndicate were apprehended.
"The team at Siliguri apprehended four persons, while they were travelling in a train from Badarpur Junction in Assam to Sealdah, at Dalkhola Railway Station in West Bengal and recovered 90 gold strips from their possession, collectively weighing 18.66 kg, valued at Rs 10.66 crores. These strips were hidden in specially-tailored waist belts worn by each of them."
Simultaneously, the team at Agartala apprehended one person who was driving a four-wheeler near the Indo-Bangladesh border near Agartala and found two gold bars weighing 2.25 kg, valued at Rs 1.30 crore.
Another team of the agency at Karimganj in Assam apprehended three persons while they were travelling in a train from Agartala to Sealdah and seized eight bars of gold weighing 3.50 kg valued at Rs 2.03 crore, from their possession.
Further investigations are on.
So far in the financial year 2022-23, the all-India gold seizure by the DRI crossed 1,000 kg, the statement said.
