COLOMBO: India’s Agents of Chennai Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI), India’s Customs intelligence unit have seized 8.7 kg of gold smuggled from Sri Lanka by sea at Mandapam near Rameswaram and arrested one person.
A DRI special team intercepted a luxury car at Uchipuli railway gate near Mandapam and on interrogation, the driver of the vehicle Mujibur Rehman (31) has admitted to the concealment of smuggled gold bars in the car. He confessed that he was transporting the gold which was received in the Mandapam coastal village brought from Sri Lanka to India through a fishing boat.
On detailed examination of the car, the DRI team recovered 87 gold bars with foreign markings of 99.9 percent purity, each weighing 100 grams and totally weighing 8.7 kilograms. The seized gold is valued at Rs 2.44 crore (about 53 million Sri Lankan rupees) in the market. Judicial Magistrate Court in Madurai remanded the suspect when he was produced before the court today.
Further investigations are being conducted to find out the gang behind the smuggling and the fishing boat that clandestinely smuggled the gold bars to India.
