Ahmedabad

In the single biggest seizure of smuggled gold, the Ahmedabad City Police today seized 60 kg of the yellow metal worth an estimated Rs 16.50 crore at the airport here and arrested six people including a woman.

The Special Operation Group (SOG) of the city crime branch arrested six people in connection with gold smuggling and seized 60 kg of gold including 60 gold biscuits worth Rs 16.50 crore along with cash worth Rs 27,000 at the Sardar Patel International Airport here, a crime branch statement said.

The gold was allegedly smuggled from Dubai by a Mumbai -based person Clifford Anthony Fostine D’Costa along with a Haryana-based person Virendrasingh Karamveersingh Sultan and a lady Sapna Dipakbhai from Mumbai, the statement said. The three had arrived here from Dubai on an Emirates flight, officials said.

The SOG also nabbed three others who had arrived at the airport to collect the contraband gold from Dubai, the statement said.

Those who came to collect the smuggled gold were identified by the police as two Delhi-based persons called Jayvirsingh Shamshersingh and Kapil Jagdevsingh, along with their Gujarat-based driver Dinesh Harji Desai.

The statement did not give details like whether the three passengers were caught during customs checks or outside along with the other three waiting men after passing through the customs channels.

According to DRI and Customs officials, the Ahmedabad seizure is the biggest so far since the previous highest quantity of contraband in the form of pure gold bars and coins seized was in Mumbai last year when about 16 kg of the smuggled metal was seized at the airport.

The biggest seizure of contraband gold on the country’s border was in 2013 when about 35 kg of gold was seized at Indo-Nepal border in 2013, the officials said.

In another case, the DRI nabbed one Yusuf Lookman Mohammed for allegedly smuggling 5 kg of gold into the country.

“The DRI seized ten gold chains with a local market value of Rs 1,34,47,794 from Mohammed. Smuggled gold chains weighing 4999.180 grams and currency notes of 11,325 in US dollars were seized,” DRI’s official statement said.

The DRI has begun a probe, the statement added.

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