Gold bars weighing 87 kg, worth Rs 23.5 crores, seized from a car in Kolkata

The Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI), Kolkata zone made its biggest gold seizure on Friday night. Gold bars weighing 87 kilograms worth Rs.23.5 crores was recovered from the cavity of a car.

“The officers of DRI, Kolkata intercepted a Hyundai car at Siliguri in West Bengal and seized gold bars worth Rs.23.5 crores, one of the biggest seizures by the central agency. We carried out a search and found that the gold bars were concealed inside the cavity of the car,” said KVS Singh, ADG, Directorate of Revenue Intelligence, Kolkata Zone.

“Gold is smuggled in different ways from Bangladesh and Myanmar, but this kind of a recovery is very rare. For the first time, we came across smugglers that hide gold bars inside the car cavity. The car is from the brand Hyundai and is only one-month old,” added Singh.

The agency has arrested the two occupants of the car. While one is a resident of Manipur, the other is a resident of Assam. The vehicle has also been seized.

According to the central agency, the consignment was from Myanmar and was travelling from Mizoram to Kolkata via Assam. Officers suspect involvement of more people into the cross-border gold smuggling. “We are investigating the matter and we will bust more such rackets,” Singh said.

In December last year, two people were arrested by DRI from Siliguri with gold bars weighing 28kg and worth over Rs 7.5 crore.