Mangaluru: The officers of Directorate of Revenue Intelligence that initially nabbed four persons from various locations, including the Mangaluru Central Railway Station on March 11 and recovered 5.6 kgs of gold bars in crude form, managed to burst a huge racket while following the case. The mastermind of the racket is also behind bars.

While tracking the same case, the sleuths arrested seven persons, seized 9.3 kg of gold estimated to cost Rs 4 cr, 5.2 kg silver and Rs 84 lakhs in cash. Further investigation is ongoing in the said case to uncover the other persons involved in the racket.

The operation was conducted on the basis of specific information about a network of operators who were bringing smuggled gold in the form of crude bars from Calicut to Mangalore.

Initially, the sleuths nabbed Syed Mohommed, Ashoka KS and Manjunath Shet from Mangaluru Central Railway Station. While Mohommed and Ashoka had brought the god, Shet and come down to purchase the same.

The sleuths also nabbed Naveen Chandra Kamath of Udupi, who is the mastermind involved in the case. 

The crude gold was taken, remelted and cast into 100gm foreign marking moulds and was then being sold to various parties across Karnataka.

Simultaneous searches were conducted in three different premises in car street Mangalore, Udupi, and Shivamogga.

Tracing the source of gold, the sleuths tracked down melters/jewellers in Calicut and the follow-up action led to the seizure of gold and Rs 82 lakh in cash. 

Two cars of Toyota Etios model belonging to the racket were seized. These cars had specially designed cavities for concealment, which were used for transporting cash and gold between Calicut and Mangalore.

The team constituted of 40 officers from Bangalore, Mangalore and Shimoga took part in the coordinated effort.