South Indian gold smuggling rackets under DRI radar

KOLKATA: Last few gold hauls including the 58 kg gold seizure on Friday at Kolkata by the Department of Revenue Intelligence has brought the South Indian smuggling racket under spotlight. The racket, which is procuring gold via Myanmar-Manipur route,
According to sources in DRI, after security has been tightened at Indo-Bangla border and surveillance increased at Kolkata airport, the smuggling rackets have changed their routes."The route now goes via Myanmar, Moreh, Imphal and Dibrugarh before it lands in Kolkata. The final destination for the smuggled gold has been southern Indian states where the yellow metal has a huge demand," said a revenue department official.
During the raid on Friday night at a guest house in Burrabazar, DRI officials arrested 12 persons of Mizo and Manipuri origin. "Many of them have been into smuggling for several years. Some of them even cross border and enter Myanmar often. During last few seizures some of the Manipuri nationals were also arrested,' said the official. Sources said that Friday night's arrest was based on an input from Mithesh Jain- a Mumbai based racketeer who had been running gold smuggling for past several years.
Inputs also came from two persons-Suresh Rajput and Natwar Chawda who were arrested while they were bringing 12 kg gold to Mumbai from Kolkata. During interrogation they told DRI sleuths about the kingpin- Mitesh Jain, owner of Hidant Creations at Mumbai. Jain reportedly told DRI officials that a large racket spread over several states in north-east was actively involved in the cross-border gold smuggling racket.
The gold, seized on Friday, had Myanmarese markings on it. DRI officials found 350 small pieces of gold worth Rs 18.33 crore during the raid. The officials are also trying to find out any possible link of the gold smuggling racket with foreign currency smuggling racket, customs officials busted a few weeks back.