Gold worth over Rs 5 Cr seized

By Our Staff Reporter
IMPHAL, Apr 25 : In a major haul, a total of 65 pieces of gold bars of foreign origin were recovered from the possession of a 33 year old man at Imphal International airport today.
The seized gold include 65  pieces weighing 10.79 kgs and worth Rs 5,76,72,550  in the market.
The accused was later produced before the Court of the CJM, Imphal West today and remanded to judicial custody.
Addressing media persons at the office of the Customs Division, Imphal, Assistant Commissioner HL Songate identified the courier as Wangkhem Ibungobi (33) S/o Wangkhem Babaton of Awang Khunou Maning Leikai, Imphal West.
Acting on specific information, staff of the anti-smuggling unit of Customs Division and staff of an Air Asia flight scheduled to proceed to Delhi were put on alert.
Accused Wangkhem Ibungobi was found moving in a suspicious manner and he was detained near the X ray counter and questioned on the content of his luggage. At this point the accused said that the luggage was not his and it was given to him to carry till Delhi for some monetary consideration, recalled the Assistant Commissioner.
On opening the luggage in the presence of Air Asia employees, 65 gold bars were found concealed inside a black polythene bag wrapped in a blanket, he added.
In total the gold bars weighed 10.79 kgs and its value has been estimated at Rs 5,76,72,550.
Later the accused was produced before the CJM Imphal West along with a prayer for judicial custody.
Going into details, the IO of the case submitted that during the interrogation it came to light that the accused came to Imphal from Shillong on April 20 to meet his mother and stayed at his step father's residence located at Awang Khunou and on April 23 he was contacted by one Rocky to book a flight to Delhi on April 24.
The same night as per instruction of Rocky he went to Singjamei Supermarket and met him. There Rocky handed him a piece of paper as token with an inscription and also instructed him to meet another person. Yesterday morning at around 8.30 he gave the token to an unknown person at Keishamthong and the unknown person handed over the luggage to carry it to Delhi in a flight.
The IO further submitted that the accused was not able to produce any documents in support of legal possession, importation and transportation of 65 gold bars of foreign origin and prayed for judicial remand for smooth investigation of the case.    The Court remanded the accused to judicial custody remand till May 9.