Imitation gold being passed off as 'ancient' from Northeast

STAFF REPORTER

GUWAHATI: A new breed of gold smugglers is out to mint money by deceiving other smugglers with imitation gold riding on an 'ancient tag' from the Northeast.

Assam and the Northeast are replete with ancient temples. Temples have pure gold in the form of models of boats, statues of deities, crowns, etc. Gold obtained from ancient temples generally needs no certificate of its purity.

According to police sources, smuggled gold bound mainly for South India and other parts of the country keep entering Assam from Myanmar and UAE via Bangladesh. A section of smugglers does send the fake gold along with the smuggled one to the rest of India. They make small boats, statues, crowns etc., and goldplate them to give them a 'fake tag' showing that the gold is from ancient temples of the north-eastern states, police sources said.

These smugglers deceive other smugglers through the sales of imitation gold along with pure one by using the 'ancient tag', the police said.

DRI (Directorate of Revenue Intelligence) investigations have revealed that the first stop of gold after being smuggled into India is typically Imphal, followed by Guwahati for aggregation and subsequent distribution to all parts of India, predominantly by road. DRI seized around 239.50 kg of gold of Myanmarese origin in the north-eastern region in fiscal 2020-21. The seizures were at Kamrup, Guwahati, Dimapur etc.

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