Woman in Delhi-bound train held with gold bars worth over Rs 7 crore
She was detained late Wednesday night and formally arrested under the provisions of the Customs Act on Thursday. On Friday, she was produced before the Special Chief Judicial Magistrate, Varanasi which remanded her to 14-day judicial custody, said the official.
2 min readLucknowUpdated: Jul 26, 2026 02:29 PM IST
The official claimed that in the interrogation, the woman revealed she is a regular carrier of gold bars smuggled from Bangladesh and into Indian territory through Cooch Behar district.
The Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) has arrested a woman travelling in a Delhi-bound train from West Bengal with 4.98 kg gold bars allegedly smuggled from Bangladesh worth around Rs 7.11 crore. She was arrested at Pandit Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Junction in Uttar Pradesh’s Chandauli district.
A senior DRI official told The Indian Express that they had got intelligence about a woman carrying smuggled gold in big quantity travelling from Cooch Behar in West Bengal to New Delhi on the Brahmaputra Express on Wednesday. The DRI team conducted a search and she was found in an AC coach as the train reached Chandauli, the official said.
A woman member of the team conducted a search and found 13 gold bars weighing about 1.5 kg concealed in a cloth waist belt. A subsequent search of her handbag recovered 29 more gold bars weighing about 3.48 kg. In total, 42 foreign-origin gold bars were seized under the provisions of the Customs Act, the official said.
She was detained late Wednesday night and formally arrested under the provisions of the Customs Act on Thursday. On Friday, she was produced before the Special Chief Judicial Magistrate, Varanasi which remanded her to 14-day judicial custody, said the official.
The official claimed that in the interrogation, the woman revealed she is a regular carrier of gold bars smuggled from Bangladesh and into Indian territory through Cooch Behar district. She was to deliver it to a client each in Varanasi and Delhi, the official claimed and they were informed that the DRI has got vital inputs about the syndicate involved in the smuggling of gold, and efforts are on to trace other members of the gang.
Bhupendra Pandey is the Resident Editor of the Lucknow edition of The Indian Express. With decades of experience in the heart of Uttar Pradesh’s journalistic landscape, he oversees the bureau’s coverage of India’s most politically significant state. His expertise lies in navigating the complex intersections of state governance, legislative policy, and grassroots social movements. From tracking high-stakes assembly elections to analyzing administrative shifts in the Hindi heartland, Bhupendra’s reportage provides a definitive lens on the region's evolution.
Authoritativeness He leads a team of seasoned reporters and investigators, ensuring that The Indian Express’ signature "Journalism of Courage" is reflected in every regional story. His leadership is central to the Lucknow bureau’s reputation for breaking stories that hold the powerful to account, making him a trusted figure for policy analysts, political scholars, and the general public seeking to understand the nuances of UP’s complex landscape.
Trustworthiness & Accountability Under his stewardship, the Lucknow edition adheres to the strictest standards of factual verification and non-partisan reporting. He serves as a bridge between the local populace and the national discourse, ensuring that regional issues are elevated with accuracy and context. By prioritizing primary-source reporting and on-the-ground verification, he upholds the trust that readers have placed in the Express brand for nearly a century. ... Read More
