Imphal, September 15 2017: Altogether 5.97 Kgs of gold concealed in rectums of six individuals have been seized by Customs Division, Imphal and CISF from Imphal airport .
Speaking to media persons at their Sangakpham office this evening, Customs Division, Imphal Deputy Commissioner Gaikhonlung Panmei said that acting on a specific tip off, air intelligence unit of the Customs Division apprehended the six individuals who were carrying 36 number of gold biscuits weighing 5.97 Kgs in total in collaboration with CISF .
The gold biscuits were smuggled from abroad in two batches and their monetary value is Rs 1.79 crore .
Earlier there were cases of gold and gold jewellery concealed by coating their surface with another metal or inside metal parts of bags and baggages.
But this was the first time gold was found concealed inside rectums, Gaikhonlung said .
The arrested gold smugglers have been identified as Kewal Singh (27) s/o Lekh Raj from Udhampur, J&K, Dulair Singh (21) s/o Suresh Kumar from J&K, Neeraja (31) s/o Ratan Chand from Amritsar, Punjab, Rintu Haider (24) from West Midnapore, West Bengal, Mintu Pan (29) s/o Sunil from West Midnapore, West Bengal and Rohit Bagga (31) s/o Pramod from Central Delhi .
The first three smugglers were arrested at around 10 am and 17 numbers of gold biscuits were seized from their possession .
Later, at around 1 pm, 19 gold biscuits were seized from the possession of the last three smugglers.
Four of them had six gold biscuits each concealed in their rectums while the other two had seven and five gold biscuits concealed inside their rectums .
They were only working as couriers but it would take time to establish the owner(s) of the gold biscuits, Gaikhonlung said .
There are possibilities of smuggling gold in such manner earlier too.
Today’s seizure is a big breakthrough and it could be the tip of an iceberg, he remarked .
There are also possibilities of smuggling narcotics and other contraband substances in such ingenious manner.
As such, all enforcement agencies need to be more alert, he added.
Source: The Sangai Express
