“Smuggled gold bars were concealed under a specially made cavity near the driver seat. Two persons were arrested,” an official said. Information was received by the agency that a smuggling syndicate was actively engaged in smuggling huge quantity of foreign-origin gold from Bhutan into India through West Bengal and sending it to different parts of India, a DRI official said.
In another related operation launched by the agency on Friday, a car along with two occupants was intercepted near Kolkata. From their possession, 33 pieces of foreign origin gold weighing 33 kg and valued at Rs 10.46 crore was seized.
In a follow up action at Siliguri, Rs 3.5 lakh in cash which was suspected to be the proceeds of smuggling was recovered. During fiscal 2017-18, Indian customs have seized 3.22 tonnes of gold which was 103 per cent more than in 2016-17.
This gold is believed to be smuggled from Bangladesh, Myanmar, Nepal, Bhutan and China. (IANS)
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