54 kg of gold seized at KIA

It was being taken from Kolkata to Coimbatore

February 23, 2014 12:46 am | Updated June 13, 2016 07:08 am IST - Bangalore:

Karnataka Bangalore: 22/02/2014:   54 kg gold which was  displayed at  a Press conference at Office of the Commissioner of Police which was recovered  at International Airport on  Saturday.
 Photo: V Sreenivasa Murthy

Karnataka Bangalore: 22/02/2014: 54 kg gold which was displayed at a Press conference at Office of the Commissioner of Police which was recovered at International Airport on Saturday. Photo: V Sreenivasa Murthy

The city police on Saturday evening arrested three men at Kempegowda International Airport (KIA) who were transporting 54 kg of gold, estimated to be worth Rs. 16.5 crore, from Kolkata (West Bengal) to Coimbatore (Tamil Nadu). The accused — Balasubramanya, Ravivarma R. and Ishwar Murthy — claimed to be senior sales executives of a jewellery unit in Coimbatore.

City Police Commissioner Raghavendra H. Auradkar told reporters that he was alerted about three persons boarding a Jet Airways flight in Kolkata with a large quantity of gold. The Coimbatore-bound flight was scheduled to land in Bangalore around 6 p.m. for a stopover.

Senior officers rushed to the airport and seized three hand bags containing 54 gold biscuits each weighing a kg along with some gold valuables from the trio who are in their thirties. When questioned, the trio claimed that the gold had been purchased from Scotiabank in Mumbai and was delivered to them in Kolkata. It was going to be used for making ornaments, they said.

The Police Commissioner said that the men had a photocopy of the purchase receipt but no documents to explain the transportation of such a large quantity of the precious metal. They could not explain why the gold was not delivered in Coimbatore, said Mr. Auradkar.

The police are investigating how the bags got past security and onto the flight. They have informed the Central Industrial Security Force, Customs Department, Directorate of Revenue Intelligence, Income Tax Department and their counterparts in Kolkata regarding the development.

The city police said that the Kolkata police have arrested a man who may be an associate of the trio. They may come to Bangalore to question the trio.

0 / 0
Sign in to unlock member-only benefits!
  • Access 10 free stories every month
  • Save stories to read later
  • Access to comment on every story
  • Sign-up/manage your newsletter subscriptions with a single click
  • Get notified by email for early access to discounts & offers on our products
Sign in

Comments

Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.

We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of The Hindu and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.