Mumbai: DRI bust gold smuggling racket

Tushar Jadhav; Dipak More; Rahul Javir; Purushottam Kawale

In a major crackdown, officials from the directorate of revenue intelligence (DRI) busted an inter-state gold smuggling racket worth Rs 18.95 crore, involving 11 people operating from Mumbai, Varanasi and Nagpur. The DRI officials arrested five accused from Mumbai and six others from Nagpur and Varanasi and seized 31.64 kg gold from them. Primary investigations by the DRI officials indicate that the gang procured gold at cheaper rates from Bangladesh for the jewellers.

According to the DRI's remand application, they received a tip-off that members of a gang involved in gold smuggling are about to arrive at an ATM centre in Juhu. The officials laid a trap and arrested Arun Pujari, Nitesh Gorad, Kiran Mandale, Tushar Jadhav and Rohit Waghmare. Pujari was found in possession of 4.9 kg gold while the officials found Rs 12 lakh on Gorad.

Nitesh Gorad; Bhanudas Jadhav; Bhupesh Kohad; Balaso Jaywant Magar

During questioning by DRI, Pujari allegedly identified the mastermind of the gold smuggling gang as Rahul Javir, a resident of Sangli who managed many carriers like Pujari. He further disclosed to the DRI officials that Mandale, Jadhav and Waghmare were working with Javir and they delivered smuggled gold into the city. According to DRI officials, Pujari revealed that gold bars, suspected to have originated in Bangladesh, were brought near Pandit Deen Dayal Upadhyay railway station in Mughalsarai, Uttar Pradesh and the gang smuggled this gold into Mumbai on a train.

The carriers intentionally didn't travel on reserved tickets to avoid detection by the law-enforcement officials. The carriers usually got down at Nashik and then came to the city by road to deliver the gold as per Javir's instruction.

Pujari revealed that at the time of the arrest the trio had arrived in the city to hand over the gold as per the instructions of Javir. Pujari also revealed to the DRI that on October 13, he had alighted from an express train at Kalyan and travelled to Byculla on a suburban local train. From Byculla Pujari had walked all his way to Mumba Devi, Zaveri Bazaar. At Zaveri Bazaar, he handed over the gold to Mahindra Gorad and Nitesh Goard who in turn delivered it to Javir.

(From left) Rohit Waghmare; Kiran Mandale; Arun Pujari

The DRI officials traced Javir to Varanasi, from where he was arrested along with one Deepak More. The DRI found 13.6 kg of gold in their possession. The DRI also arrested two more accused identified as Balaso Magar and Bhupesh Kohad. Similarly, two more accused Rahul Jadhav and Jaidev Kuhad, were arrested from Nagpur for their role in the smuggling racket.

The DRI claimed that Javir and More brought foreign gold into the city without any valid documents and the agency suspected that the gold was smuggled from Bangladesh. The part of the consignment was supposed to be delivered to Purshottam Kawale of Sagar Jewellers in Nagpur who has also been arrested in the case The DRI had apprehended 11 people and booked them under the relevant sections of the Customs Act. The Esplanade Court had granted all the accused two days of DRI custody.

Rs 18.95
Is the market value of the seized gold