Nagpur: In a major crackdown on gold smuggling racket, the Crime branch police arrested three persons including a couple from Thane at Nagpur railway station on Wednesday morning and seized 1,400 gram gold biscuits worth 38 lakh.
This seizure has put the custom department at the Nagpur airport in the dock.
The accused Mohd Hussain Yusuf Ali Rangwaala (46), his wife Rukhsana Rangwaala (39), both from rehanbagh, Thane and Sheikh Gilani Abdul Kadar (46) Nagdevi, Mumbai.
DCP (Crime Branch) Ranjan Sharma informed that they got a tip-off that the accussed had smuggled gold from Sharjah through Nagpur airport and planning to take it to Mumbai by train. He said that the accussed after landing into Nagpur airport were to board a train to Mumbai. The Sharjah-Nagpur flight arrived in Nagpur at 3.30 am. On the basis of the information from sources, the police had cordorned off the airport and railway station from tuesday night itself. Then around 8.30 in the morning the accussed were intercepted at Ganesh Tekdi flyover and taken into custody. However, during their inspection no gold was found from them.
The police had confirmed information that the accussed were carrying gold with them. The accused were then taken to Crime Branch office for interrogation. After interrogation it was revealed that the three accussed had hidden the gold biscuits in the private parts of their body and 12 gold biscuits were recovered from them. The accused are into beauty products business and had smuggled the gold illegally from Sharjah.
The accused were produced before the court. The case will now be handed over to the custom department. The police team that undertook the operation were superintendent of police Chandrashekhar Dhole, joint superitendent Mangesh Desai, Praddep Londe, constable’s Pramod Kohle, Shailesh Thawre, Manish Bhosle, Kuldeep Petkar and Archana Vilaytkar.
