Gold biscuits worth Rs 2 crore seized in Guwahati

GUWAHATI: The anti-smuggling unit of customs division said on Friday that they have, in an operation on Wednesday, seized gold biscuits worth over Rs 2 crore from an Imphal-Guwahati passenger bus at the Inter-State Bus Terminus in Lokhra recently. Two persons - identified as Md Nasir Khan of Lilong area in Thoubal district of Manipur and Somnath Subarao Mane from Sangli in Maharashtra - were arrested and sent to judicial custody on Friday.
Annu Darin, deputy commissioner of customs, said, "40 gold biscuits of Myanmarese origin, weighing 6.6 kilos and valued at Rs. 2,05, 90,510, were seized in the operation."
The operation was launched on Wednesday following an information received that smugglers were carrying 64 illegal gold biscuits across the Manipur-Myanmar border to the city. "After tracking the bus, our team caught Mane red-handed when he was receiving 20 gold biscuits from Khan, the driver of the bus. After searching the bus, another 20 biscuits were found in the toolbox," customs sources said. Search is still on for the remaining 24 gold biscuits.
A preliminary probe has revealed that Mane, a goldsmith by profession who lives in lower Assam's Barpeta district, was assigned to deliver the consignment to a person at the Jalukbari area from where it would have been taken to West Bengal.
Investigation has found that most of the gold bars or biscuits from Myanmar are smuggled into India through the region to meet the huge demands in the clandestine gold market. Involvement of big players in the jewellery industry has also not been overruled. "During 2017-18, customs officials here alone, on eight occasions, have seized more than 75.31 kg of illegal gold. The total value of the seizures was estimated at Rs 22.60 crore. The total seizure during 2016-17 was worth around Rs 3.29 crore," informed a senior customs official.