Chennai: Consignments of smuggled gold belonging to a gang from Sri Lanka meant for Chennai business house fell into the hands of DRI team for two consecutive days as sleuths remained tightlipped about the arrest made on the first day. A total of 13.76 kg gold worth nearly Rs 4 crore has been seized during two operations by DRI near Ramanathapuram during last couple of days.
"Because we kept the first seizure under wraps, we managed to make the second seizure,"a DRI official in Chennai pointed on Friday.
It may be noted that during the last three financial years, the DRI alone had seized 210 kg of gold smuggled from Sri Lanka via sea route.
On Wednesday night, based on a information that a person carrying huge quantity of gold in government bus from Rameswaram to Chennai, the DRI team had intercepted a searched a bus at Pattinamkathan check post and seized 7.36 kg gold in bars from a passenger named Jaffer Ali.
Based on further intelligence, the DRI team on Thursday morning intercepted two persons in Rameswaram coast and seized 6.4 kg gold from them.
The two carriers were identified as M Nagarathinam and M Ramanathan. "In both the cases, the contrabands originated from same person in Lanka and were meant for same person in Chennai," a DRI official noted.
We could make the second seizure only because we have not made the first seizure public, the officer added. All the three men nabbed with gold were arrested.
