Gold price Rs 616.2 crore seized in Kerala in 5 yrs: MoS Finance

A complete of 1,820.234 kg of gold price Rs 616.20 crore has been seized in Kerala within the final 5 years in 3,166 circumstances of smuggling of the valuable metallic, Minister of State for Finance Pankaj Chaudhary stated within the Lok Sabha on Monday, citing authorities knowledge.
Of this, 429.93 kg of gold price Rs 186.14 crore was seized in 684 circumstances in 2020, whereas 726.31 kg of gold price Rs 241.67 crore was seized in 1,076 circumstances in 2019, the information confirmed. A complete of 904 individuals have been arrested within the gold smuggling circumstances in Kerala over the past 5 years.
In 2020, a gold smuggling case had snowballed right into a disaster for the CPI(M)-led state authorities within the run-up to the Assembly polls in April. The case has its origin within the seizure of 30 kg of 24-carat gold price Rs 14.82 crore at Thiruvananthapuram worldwide airport final yr by the Customs (Preventive) Commissionerate.
The consignment was allegedly camouflaged as diplomatic baggage despatched from the UAE. Later, the NIA and Enforcement Directorate took up the probe, which had led to the arrest of Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan’s Principal Secretary M Sivasankar, ex-UAE consulate worker Swapna Suresh and others.