Two central agencies — the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) and the Border Security Force (BSF) — seized smuggled gold bars worth around Rs 3 crore from two locations in the past 24 hours.
Sources said the Siliguri and Behrampore regional units of the DRI held a joint raid and arrested two persons from Siliguri More of Raiganj in Uttar Dinajpur district on Saturday evening and recovered gold bars worth around Rs 2.5 crore from them.
Acting on a tip-off, a car was intercepted near Siliguri More. There were two passengers who said they were going to Raiganj for treatment. They were brought to DRI’s Siliguri office. Their vehicle was searched and 43 gold bars weighing 4.998kg were recovered from a specially built chamber below the driver’s seat.
The arrested, Mrinal Ali Mondal and Chintu Ghosh, are from Hilli in Dakshin Dinajpur.
DRI officials learnt that the duo collected the gold from a person in Hilli. “We suspect it was smuggled into India from Bangladesh. They were supposed to deliver it to carriers,” said a source.
In another incident, personnel of the 61 battalion of the BSF posted on the India-Bangladesh border in Dakshin Dinajpur district seized over 800 grams of gold (worth around Rs 41 lakh) on Sunday.