E-Paper
Ludhiana Police bust int’l smuggling module, recover 1.23 kg gold paste
Commissioner of police Mandeep Singh Sidhu said that a man hailing from Haridwar in Uttarakhand and presently settled in Dubai, is believed to be the mastermind behind this illegal operation
Police on Sunday claimed to have busted an international gold smuggling module, being operated from Dubai, with the arrest of two persons and recovered 1.23 kg of gold along with an illegal pistol and five live bullets from their possession.
Commissioner of police Mandeep Singh Sidhu said that a man hailing from Haridwar in Uttarakhand and presently settled in Dubai, is believed to be the mastermind behind this illegal operation. The module had on July 15 managed to smuggle 50 kg of gold through 50 travellers from Sharjah and Dubai, he said.
The arrested accused have been identified as Azad Singh, 30, hailing from Haridwar, and Ashu Kumar, 22, from Sultanwind Road, Amritsar.
The commissioner said that Puneet Singh, also known as Guru or Pankaj, originally from Haridwar and currently residing in Dubai, is running this module with the assistance of his friend Parvinder Singh from Meharban. Efforts are on to arrest the duo.
The CIA Staff 2 police, led by inspector Beant Juneja, acted on a tip-off and arrested the accused near the Jalandhar bypass on Saturday night. The accused were allegedly waiting for members of the module from Delhi to hand over the smuggled gold to them.
According to the commissioner, Azad is the brother-in-law of Puneet. Investigations have revealed that Puneet personally chose the travellers to smuggle the gold. The accused used to melt the gold and add chemicals to form a paste, which the airport scanners failed to detect. Subsequently, the gold paste was handed over to a member in Delhi, who further converted it into metal form.
The commissioner also mentioned that Puneet would pay ₹20,000 to the couriers as their commission for successfully smuggling gold to India. Azad and Ashu were in Dubai a few months ago. Puneet would send pictures of the couriers to Azad and Ashu, who would then collect the gold from them outside the airports.
During the arrest, a red-coloured diary was seized from the accused, containing details of the carriers involved in smuggling gold for the module, along with other vital information.
Inspector Beant Juneja stated that the smuggled gold is 97% pure. The police have informed the customs department about the recovery and they will conduct further investigations into the matter. It is expected that more crucial information will be obtained from the accused during the interrogation process.
