The Railway Protection Force has intensified vigil across Southern Railway after 4.750 kg of gold, worth Rs.1.5 crore, was seized from two passengers at Chennai Central this month.
On May 9, as Sathyanarayanan, 58, entered the station to board a train to Andhra Pradesh, the Door Frame Metal Detector gave off a long beep, indicating the presence of some heavy metal. RPF personnel frisked him with a hand-held metal detector.
He was found wearing a cloth around his hip, loaded with six plates of gold and a few smaller pieces of the metal, all weighing 3,150 kg of gold worth Rs. 96 lakh.
He was handed over to the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence.
On May 14, the laptop bag of Hariprasad, 28, was found to contain two gold plates weighing 1,594 grams, worth Rs. 45 lakh.
“Though the passenger claimed that he bought them from a shop at Sowcarpet and was carrying them to Warangal, he was unable to produce any receipt,” an RPF officer said. Hariprasad said his co-passenger was bringing the receipt along, but it never came.
He was handed over to the Commercial Taxes Department.
Had gold trading been billed, it would have attracted one per cent tax, amounting to Rs. 45,000. Since the gold was not accompanied by valid papers, a fine of Rs. 1.37 lakh was imposed on Hariprasad.
The seizures prompted Inspector-General and Chief Security Commissioner V.K. Dhaka to order that the frisking of passengers and scanning of their luggage be intensified.
