Sleuths of the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DIR) on Thursday arrested five persons and seized 9.3-kilogram gold worth Rs 4.64 crores during a search of a car and subsequent raids in Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh.
DRI's Indore unit had received information that three persons would be carrying smuggled gold and would be coming to Sagar district in Madhya Pradesh on May 24.
Accordingly, surveillance was mounted for the suspected vehicle, and officers of the DRI Bhopal regional unit and Indore zonal unit intercepted the car on a highway. During the search, foreign-origin gold bars weighing 7.8 kilograms were recovered from a specially built cavity concealed in the car.
All the three occupants of the car confessed to their crime and subsequently, the main financier and buyer were also identified and arrested from Sagar. The four accused have been remanded to judicial custody by an economic offences court in Sagar.
The main financier and buyer revealed that one of the members of their syndicate (a jeweler) is in the Durg district of Chhattisgarh who was involved in handling this smuggled gold. Immediately a follow-up operation was conducted by DRI officers of Raipur Regional Unit and the premises of a well-known Jeweller in Durg were searched.
Accordingly 1.5 kilograms of gold along with Rs. 64.85 lakh cash was seized from the premises. The Jeweller of Durg also confessed his crime. He too has been arrested.
Further investigation is underway.
Earlier this month, officers of the DRI Indore Zonal Unit had seized approximately 18 kilograms of foreign gold and 4,545 kilograms of Silver worth approximately 40 crores and 5 persons had been arrested in anti-smuggling operations in MP-CG.
( With inputs from ANI )
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