The 160 kg of raw gold, which was seized from a checkpoint 5 km from the Chandigarh International Airport on January 17, has been released to its owner on the directions of SAS Nagar court, police said on Tuesday.
The SAS Nagar court had directed police on Monday to release the gold after its owner furnished a surety bond of Rs 10 crore, said Pawan Kumar, station house officer (SHO), Sohana police station.
The gold was released to Prabhat Chowdhary, owner of a Hamirpur-based gold firm, after he furnished the bond.
Punjab Police had arrested three persons, Rakesh Kumar, Vijay Kumar and Surjit Singh, all from Himachal Pradesh, while they were on their way from Delhi to Hamirpur with plates of gold stacked in a white Hyundai Creta. However, the trio had claimed that they were employed as drivers with AJ Gold.