Kolkata, Jan 10 (IANS): Department of Revenue Intelligence sleuths seized 11.66 kg smuggled gold valued at about Rs 3.77 crore and arrested two persons at the Majhdia Railway Station in West Bengal near the Indo-Bangladesh border, a release said on Wednesday.
The seizures were made on January 7, after the DRI personnel received a specific information that a syndicate was active in smuggling huge quantity of foreign origin gold from Bangladesh into India and then sending it to different parts of India.
Accordingly, DRI sleuths laid out an elaborate plan and boarded the Gede-Ranaghat local train in the guise of ordinary people, scanned the passengers and successfully identified the two persons as carriers of the contraband.
The two were intercepted as they were deboarding the train at Majhdia, and a thorough search resulted in recovery and seizure of 100 biscuits of foreign-origin gold of 116.64 gm each, totally weighing 11.66 kgs valued at Rs. 3.77 crore concealed in specially tailored waist belts.
The arrested were produced before the judicial magistrate who remanded them in judicial custody.
With this seizure, in the current financial year, the DRI has seized about 395 kgs gold and gold jewellery valued close to Rs 123 crore in the region spread over West Bengal and the north-eastern states.
The seized gold is believed to have been smuggled from India's land borders with Bangladesh, Myanmar, Nepal, Bhutan and China.