Ramnad DCC president held in 3.58 crore gold smuggling case

The consignment was allegedly smuggled in from Sri Lanka.  Official sources said the driver of the seized car said the gold belonged to Rajendran and the DRI sleuths arrested him at his residence in Royapettah. High drama followed the arrest of the leader as he wriggled out of the hands of the officials when they were bringing him out of the house for interrogation and tried to flee. However, the hefty leader, who weighs more than 100 kg, slipped and fell during his bid to escape and broke his left hand. 

DRI officials took him to the Government Royapettah Hospital for treatment and remanded him in judicial custody. His driver K Gandhi was also arrested in Tiruchy and remanded in judicial custody. 

The DRI, which was working on a specific tip-off, intercepted a car (TN 07 BQ 8585), when it was proceeding towards Tiruchy on the Tiruchy-Pudukottai Highway on Wednesday morning. The DRI sleuths inspected the car and found gold bars weighing 12 kg concealed inside. “Only driver Gandhi was present in the car and when questioned he told us that the gold was smuggled to India from Sri Lanka by sea and the consignment had landed at Thondi in Ramanathapuram district. He said the gold was being transported on the instruction of his employer, Rajendran,” a DRI official told DTNext. After the confession of the driver, a DRI team was sent to the house of Rajendran. DRI officials searched his house and confiscated his mobile phones, which the officials say carry incriminating evidence regarding the gold smuggling. As the DRI officials were coming out of his house after taking him into custody, Rajendran wriggled out of their grip and started to run. DRI officials chased him and Rajendran slipped and fell down. “Rajendran broke his left hand in the fall and we took him to Government Royapettah Hospital where his hand was attended to. We have sent him to Puzhal prison after producing him at the magistrate court,” the official added. 

Rajendran, who is said to be very close to the TNCC leadership, runs a number of businesses, including prawn farming, mineral water company and bottling units. He was earlier arrested on charges under the provisions of the Foreign Exchange Regulation Act. DRI officials said further investigation are on to find if he has connections with international gold smuggling rings.