DRI seizes 33.5kg of Sri Lankan gold from Triplicane home

Chennai:

Directorate of Revenue Intelligence on Tuesday stumbled upon a Hawala network while seizing 33.5kg of smuggled gold worth Rs 9.91 crore from a house in Triplicane in Chennai on Tuesday morning.

DRI sources told Express that they are interrogating two persons in this regard. The duo are identified as Thamin Ansari and Rahman.

DRI sources said they had information that gold will be smuggled from Sri Lanka to Keelakarai in Ramanathapuram. And from there it will be smuggled to Triplicane in Chennai.

“We also had the information about the gold being brought to Triplicane and later being handed over to the two persons,” a DRI source said.

But instead of nabbing the duo with the gold when the transfer took place, DRI officials began tailing them to a house in Triplicane. “We waited till they got in and then raided the house. We also wanted to check the house to get more incriminating evidence,” the source said.

“After this, we also conducted a raid in a house located two lane behind the house we earlier raided,” he added.

During the search we got some incriminating documents linking Rahman to money laundering and hawala transaction.

DRI sources said that it is learnt that Rahman is a big time hawala operator. He used to transfer funds to Dubai, Sri Lanka and Singapore. “We also learnt he is working for a Singapore based Hawala operator,” the DRI source said.

“We are currently interrogating them. They are likely to be arrested,” the DRI source added. While sources said that the duo are brother-in-law of Hassan Mohammed Jinnah, who is a DMK functionary. But Jinnah denied any links with the duo when Express contacted him. “I don’t have any sister,” he said. “It would be some other Jinnah they are referring to. I hail from Tiruvarur,” he added.

Sources also said the duo has an electronics shop in Ritchie street. It is believed the duo had been smuggling gold for a long time and had been supplying it to the small retail shops. Officials are trying to ascertain how such a large consignment of gold is smuggled into India. “We are also looking into various leads of hawala transaction,” DRI sources added.