Kochi: The commercial tax department on Saturday morning seized 9.5 kg of gold ornaments worth Rs 3 crore from a car parked at Cochin International Airport at Nedumbassery on the charge of evading sales tax. The ornaments were packed in 11consignments and addressed to various persons associated with the Joy Alukkas Jewellery group. But the group has strongly rebutted any hanky-panky.
The consignments, which arrived in a flight from Haryana, were seized after the intelligence wing of the commercial tax department received a tip-off about the attempt to transport the ornaments without paying sales tax.
“The gold was seized from one Jerry of Thrissur. He said he was an employee of Joy Alukkas group. He arrived at CIAL in a Go-Air flight from New Delhi on Friday night. Out of the 11 consignments, eight had old jewelleries and three had new ones. The old jewelleries were collected from various jewelleries in North India. These were meant to be processed in a jewellery called Thrissur Gold and later supplied to the Joy Alukkas group. The new ornaments were meant to be supplied directly to jewelleries,” said an official.
