Gold worth over Rs 10 crore seized by DRI

While two seizures – one that fetched 12.149 kg and another involving 12 kg gold bars – were recorded at Mannady, the third that netted 8.1 kg gold was from a passenger who was on a private bus proceeding to Chennai from Keelakarai. All the seized gold bars were smuggled to India from Sri Lanka, the DRI said. 

It may be recalled that during the 2017-18 financial year, DRI Chennai had seized more than 105 kg of gold smuggled from Sri Lanka via Tamil Nadu coast. This amounts to half of the gold seized by the Chennai unit in that period.

DRI further said that the most vulnerable areas for smuggling gold on the state’s coast are the stretch from Tiruchendur to Rameswaram and from Rameswaram to Vedaranyam. 

In April this year, Sri Lanka had increased the import duty of gold to 15 per cent from 10 per cent to curb smuggling, after a high-level meeting between India and Sri Lanka in February.