Chennai: Sleuths of Directorate of Revenue Intelligence seized 8.7 kg gold worth over Rs 2.44 crore from a luxury sedan near Rameswaram based on an intelligence input and arrested one person on Saturday night.
“We were keeping elaborate surveillance in vulnerable coastal areas in the southern district after we got information that gold is being smuggled from Lanka in large scale to Tamil Nadu through the sea,” a DRI official said.
On the eve of the new year, a DRI team intercepted a speeding Honda City car near Uchipuli railway gate near Mandapam near Rameswaram in Ramanathapuram district. The driver of the car, when questioned, admitted that he was carrying gold bars in the car in a pouch under driver’s seat. The driver identified as Mujibur Rehman, also disclosed that he was carrying smuggled gold, received from a fishing boat at a coastal village from Lanka.
There were 87 gold biscuits of 24 carat purity each weighing 100 Gm each and totally weighing 8.7 kg valued Rs 2.44 crore in the market. Mujibur Rahman has been arrested and remanded to judicial custody.
