RAMESWARAM, Tamil Nadu : The Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) sleuths seized 8.7 kg gold bars smuggled from Sri Lanka by sea at Mandapam near here at midnight last night. According to a DRI statement here today, based on specific intelligence inputs, the officials of DRI, Chennai Zonal Unit kept an elaborate surveillance at vulnerable coastal areas in the Southern districts of the state to detect gold smuggling through the sea coast. A DRI special team intercepted a luxury car at Uchipuli railway gate near Mandapam and on interrogation, the driver of the vehicle Mujibur Rehman (31) admitted the fact of concealment of smuggled gold bars in the car in a pouch beneath the driver’s seat. He confessed that he was transporting the yellow metal which was received in the Mandapam coastal village brought from Lanka to India through a fishing boat. On detailed examination of the car, the DRI team recovered 87 gold bars with foreign markings of 99.9 percent purity, each weighing 100 grams and totally weighing 8.7 kilograms. The seized gold is valued at Rs 2.44 crore in the market. As the gold bars have been smuggled illegally into India, the DRI officials seized the same under the provisions of the Customs Act 1962. Mujibur Rehman was arrested and produced before the Judicial Magistrate Court in Madurai, who remanded him to judicial custody today. Further investigations were on to find out the gang behind the smuggling and the fishing boat that clandestinely smuggled the gold bars to India. (AGENCIES)
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