City jeweller nabbed with gold biscuits

District superintendent of police Pratap Dighavkar said the two were arrested because they were unable to produce any receipts of the gold,silver and money recovered from them. “The gold biscuits have imprints of Switzerland. We have intimated the customs department. Seized gold,silver,money and car would be handed over to the customs department for further investigation. It is likely to unearth a big smuggling and hawala racket,” he said.

“We would also write to the Income Tax Department and Directorate of Revenue Intelligence to probe whether the currency of Rs 28 lakh was illegally circulated,” he added.

Assistant Commissioner S B Shinde of customs department said,“We would be taking over the custody of Mali and Jangam from court. It seems that gold has been smuggled from Switzerland. Investigation will be done to know the origin and destination of the gold and money recovered from the suspects.”

Police inspector Bhausaheb Andhalkar of LCB said seized car is in the name of Mali’s father. “Mali is a native of Hupri in Kolhapur district. He settled in Pune a few years back. We suspect that he took the consignment from Hupri. Mali had made several phone calls in Karnataka and Andhra Pardesh before being nabbed,” he said.