Bizman arrested in Kolkata on charges of smuggling gold from abroad

Kolkata, Jan 22 (IANS) A businessman in Kolkata was arrested on charges of smuggling of gold from abroad, said the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) on Monday.

The arrested person was identified as Keshav Viswambhar Chauhan. He was arrested from his residence in central Kolkata. Smuggled gold worth Rs 2 crore was seized from his procession, sources said.

It is learnt that one agent in this illegal smuggling business was arrested recently in Chhattisgarh by the sleuths and during his interrogation he named Chauhan as one the important links in this racket.

The DRI sleuths, sources said, have already got the permission of the court to take Chauhan to Chhattisgarh on transit remand and the process on this count has already started.

It learnt that the main assignment of Chauhan was to illegally import gold from overseas and then sell the same at premium prices to different jewellery traders in different parts of the country.

He used to operate from more than one state.

This is the second major gold seizure by the DRI sleuths within a span of two months. In November last year, they seized smuggled gold of market value of around Rs 3.30 crore from near the India - Bangladesh border area at Habra in North 24 Parganas district of West Bengal..

The gold consignment was smuggled from Bangladesh and was meant for delivery to some gold jewellery manufacturing entities at Posta in central Kolkata.