32-kg gold bars worth ₹10 crore seized at Mumbai airport; 7 held

Seven men have been arrested in the case and have allegedly confessed to smuggling gold via the air route and then selling it to jewellers in Zaveri Bazaar and other markets in the city with huge margins.

The Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) on Saturday seized 32.28-kg smuggled gold bars, worth ₹10 crore, from the domestic airport in Santacruz. Seven men have been arrested in the case and have allegedly confessed to smuggling gold via the air route and then selling it to jewellers in Zaveri Bazaar and other markets in the city with huge margins.

The seized gold bars. (HT Photo)

On learning that consignments carrying illegal gold bars were landing at Concor Air Ltd, an agency dealing with domestic air cargo, at the Santacruz airport, DRI officials intercepted 12 cargo consignments and seized the gold. DRI found that seven logistics companies, having offices in Kalbadevi, had ordered the consignments and wrongfully declared the cargo as gold jewellery instead of gold bars.

“The arrested accused allegedly smuggled foreign-marked and unmarked gold bars. These include bars smuggled across Indo-Myanmar border,” said a DRI official. “We found that the foreign-marked gold bars were smuggled through various ports of India and brought to Mumbai through domestic air route to avoid checking by DRI,” he said. The accused firms received the parcels at the cargo terminal and sold the gold bars at jewellery shops.

The accused companies are Satrawala Logistics Pvt Ltd, New Ashok Parcel and Logistics Pvt Ltd, Ambe Express Logistics, Naplog Logistics Pvt Ltd, Bhawani Logistics Pvt Ltd, Jai Mata Air Services and Yogita Logistics Pvt Ltd. While Manohar Kothari, owner of Ambe Express Logistics; Jai Prakash Saini, owner of Yogita Logistics; and Sanjay Kumar Didwania of Aur Parcel Parcel were remanded in judicial custody, Vikash Trivedi of Naplog Logistics; Bhagwan Lal Gujjar of Bhawani Logistics; Rakesh Saini of Satrawala Logistics; and Rakesh Kumar of Shri Sai Parcel Service have got bail.

“We interrogated the men on whose name the consignments were booked. The arrested accused confessed that they have been involved in smuggling for the past two to three years,” said the official.