The Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) has succeeded in arresting five members of a gang involved in smuggling gold from Dubai and selling it in India. In this regard, DRI has conducted raids in Zaveri Bazar, Versova and Mumbadevi areas and seized 14 kg 497 grams of gold, cash worth INR 2 crore and 4600 pounds.
These gangs used to sell the smuggled gold to India at a low price on a commission of INR 2,000 to 3,000 per kg. The value of the seized gold is INR 8.5 cr. DRI has also received information about the main accused in Dubai along with a woman involved in the case.
The names of the arrested accused are Mohammad Rafiq Razvi (58), Mahendra Jain (52) and Sameer Merchant alias Afzal Haroon Batatawala (56), Umed Singh (24) and Mahipal Vyas (42). According to sources, DRI had received information that Sameer Merchant was active in gold smuggling. This smuggling was done through Batatawala. The gold was then given to Razvi for distribution in the Indian market. This sale used to be done through Mahendra Jain from Mazgaon. DRI officials have been investigating it for the past few days. The DRI learned that the transaction was carried out from two locations in Zaveri Bazar. Accordingly, DRI raided the shop on Vitthalwadi Road where 10 kg of gold was found in it.
Arrival from Dubai
A person named Amjad from Dubai used to send the seized gold to India. Sameer Merchant and his wife Jyoti Kitty would then sell the gold to other members of the gang. Merchant was earlier arrested by the DRI in 1997 for smuggling foreign currency from Hong Kong. Then in 2004 he was arrested by Ahmedabad NCB. It came out in 2013. He had changed his name from Afzal Batatawala to Sameer Merchant.
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