KALPETTA: Excise personnel seized 34.348 kg of gold ornaments without valid documents worth Rs 10 crore from a private luxury bus and arrested six persons from Rajasthan in the wee hours of Tuesday. The bus from Bangalore was bound for Kozhikode, and the seizure was on a tip-off its intelligence wing received at the Tholpetty check post near Mananthavady. The gold was hidden in four travel bags under the back seat.
Excise department handed over the gold and the seven carriers to the sales tax special squad. An official from the sales tax GST special wing said it was smuggled in by two gangs suspected to be regular carriers. “Such teams are regular suppliers to major jewellery groups of Kozhikode,” he told DC. "The group failed to produce sufficient documents empowering them to keep the precious metal in custody." Those taken into custody were B. Sangesh, M. Abhai, Madanlal, Vikram Chambaram and K. Kamalesh.
The sales tax officials said that if the carriers either produce the necessary document or ready to pay the 3 percent tax and a fine of another 3 percent, the gold would be released. Those taken into custody were released later. The gold has been kept in the treasury chest. Excise intelligence wing inspector A.J. Shaji, preventive officers C.B. Vijayan, M.K. Gopi, K.J. Santhosh, K.M. Simon, K. Ramesh and C. Balakrishnan and others were part of the team.
