DRI to investigate gold smuggling into city

HYDERABAD: The Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) has been handed over the task of investigating into the spurt in gold smuggling using Rajiv Gandhi International Airport as a conduit that has rattled the excise and customs (EC) department officials.
Big-shot realtors, readymade garment traders and interior furnishings traders are reported behind the racket, officials sources said.Investigation by EC officials threw up information that suggested that even Dubai-based underworld is linked with the smuggling of the yellow metal into India, especially through Hyderabad.
The increasing number of cases and the link to the underworld alerted Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) which expressed its desire to take over the probe. It suspected that huge amount of money was being sent out of the country through hawala channels for smuggling in gold.
Sources said CBI officials first approached the excise and customs department with an intention to take over the probe after an airhostess of Emirates Airlines, Sadaf Khan, and her accomplice Shujat Ali, were caught at the RGI Airport in April last. They were trying to smuggle in 13 kg of gold from Dubai. Sustained interrogation of the arrested persons revealed that more persons are connected to the smuggling chain. As a follow-up to this case, EC officials grilled city-based realtor Sanobar Baig, managing director of Pride India Group; Mohammed Eisa, proprietor of Kashish Garments; and Abdul Khader, owner of a vernacular TV channel in Old City. All three of them reportedly denied their involvement in the racket.
Meanwhile, Mohammed Hafiz, proprietor of MAK Furnishings at Nampally, is said to be evading questioning by refusing to accept the summons served by officials. Sources further said that the Special Intelligence and Investigation Branch (SIIB) of the EC department obtained the call details of Shujat Ali that revealed that some realtors and businessmen were in constant contact with him on phone.
Earlier, EC department officials raided the house of one Ali Bin Sayeed in Barkas and recovered four kg of gold from the premises. His interrogation reportedly revealed that a tailor, Ajju Bhai, was involved in sending youth to Dubai to smuggle the metal, the sources added.
Bits and pieces of information put together indicated greater conspiracy with international ramifications. While the CBI is keeping an alert watch on the cases, Commissionerate-II of the EC department reportedly sent a request to DRI, which focuses on economic offences, to investigate into the smuggling racket and help them with timely inputs.