Gold, diamonds worth Rs 3.3 cr seized by DRI; 4 arrested

Four persons including three members of a family were arrested by the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) with smuggled gold and diamonds worth Rs 3.3 crore from Memco crossroads of the city, official sources said today.
The four were arrested in the wee hours and produced before a magistrate, who sent them to 15 days judicial custody.
Acting on specific intelligence inputs, DRI sleuths intercepted a car in which the four persons were carrying 4.25 kg gold and 10 kg diamonds, which were smuggled into the country via Nepal border.
They were reaching the city by road from Jaipur.
A DRI official said that a lookout notice was issued by Intelligence Bureau (IB) officials and Customs department against the mastermind of the racket, Pradip Jagada (45), a resident of Veraval.

"Earlier, he used to smuggle gold and diamonds via air from Dubai to Ahmedabad. After a lookout notice was issued in his name, he was using the porous border of Nepal and Bangladesh to smuggle gold and diamond into the country," the official said.

Pradip Jagada's wife Bharti (40), son Dharmendra Jagada (21) and an assistant from their village, Vicky, were arrested along with him, the official said.
DRI officials said that a large gang seems to be at work and they are investigating into the direct and indirect support for these four persons.
The diamonds were said to be blood (conflict) diamonds without Kimberley Process Certification Scheme (KPCS). Also the value of the consignment could be higher than estimated, they said.

Kimberley Process is a joint governments, industry and civil society initiative to stem the flow of conflict diamonds - rough diamonds - used by rebel movements to finance wars against legitimate governments.