THRISSUR: The customs officials on Saturday seized 24 carat foreign-made
gold
bar pieces totally weighing 2,161g and valued at Rs 93 lakh in the market. In connection with the case, four Thrissur and Palakkad natives were arrested under section 104 of the Customs Act and released on bail, said customs officials.
The gold was seized by a joint inspection by customs preventive units of Palakkad and customs preventive division in Thrissur.
"Four passengers carrying the foreign-made gold concealed it in their waist belts and were travelling in a private bus from
Madurai
to Ernakulam when they were intercepted by the officials at
Kozhinjampara
Junction around 3am on Sunday," said a senior customs official.
"The primary information revealed that the accused collected the foreign gold from some Madurai-based jewellers. The investigation is going on," said the official.
Assistant commissioner M Suresh led the inspection. Superintendents P Unnikrishnan, P
Gireesh Babu
, O F Jose, V Muralidaran and Inspector
K Rajashekar Reddy
and head Havildar Anilkumar P V and driver K V Raveendran led the inspection, said customs officials.
"Due to the Covid-19 scare the vehicle checking was reduced in the interstate bus services and the smuggling mafia were using this chance to handling smuggling gold," said a customs official.
"After the spread of Covid-19 scare the health and other officials intensified the verification in the airports and railway stations and then the smuggling mafia changed the route to interstate bus services," said the senior customs official.