Two people were arrested by customs officials at the domestic airport in the national Capital for smuggling 10 kg gold worth more than Rs3 crore. According to a customs official, the accused have been identified as Sartaj Ahmed (35), a resident of Jama Masjid and Narendra Kumar, a native of Guwahati.
“Acting on specific intelligence, officials visited CElEBI warehouse of the domestic terminal’s air cargo complex and intercepted accused Sartaj who was seen collecting a parcel from the delivery point of the warehouse. On examination of the parcel, a total of 60 foreign origin gold bars weighing 10kgs were seized from him. The value of the gold bars came up to Rs 3,06,34,141,” said the official.
“We immediately took the man for questioning and he confessed his intention of smuggling the gold, which was booked from Guwahati.
“On further interrogation, he disclosed that another person Narendra Kumar, who had booked the gold from Guwahati and had asked him to collect the gold from the airport. Sartaj said Narender was also involved with him in the smuggling activity and had been smuggling gold since a long time,” said the official.
On the instance of Sartaj, Narendra was arrested in Delhi and on questioning him, he confessed to the crime saying he has a firm called Rana Brothers Pvt ltd in Guwahati, through which he would manage the smuggling activity.
“He also confessed to have another firm Amin Traders in Delhi in which smuggled gold were being sent from Guwahati,” said the official.
“We have arrested both the accused under section 135 of the customs act, 1962. The offence committed by both is cognizable and non-bailable. Further investigations are on to find out if others are involved and whether there is a racket behind this,” the official added.