look news india
Mumbai: The Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) on Monday arrested four jewelers from Mumbai in connection with the gold smuggling case involving Afghanistan's Consul General Zakia Wardak. The DRI also claimed that the syndicate has smuggled 300 kg of gold from abroad in four months from January this year. A consulate employee is also under suspicion in this case. The DRI also suspects that Afghan diplomat Wardak may have provided gold bars to the accused jewelers earlier as well.
The arrested jewellers were identified as Vaibhav Thackeray (31), Sahil Shah (36), Vinod Shah (60) and Shailesh Jain (55).
On April 25, the DRI arrested Wardak after he arrived at the airport with a consignment of 25 kg gold worth Rs 18.60 crore from Dubai. Twenty-five kg gold bars bearing foreign marks were recovered from him. Investigation revealed that another staff member of the consulate, Rafi Ullah Kalewal, may also be involved in this syndicate. According to the call detail record (CDR), Kalewal was in constant touch with Sahil Shah and Vinod Shah of SK Shah and Sons Jewellers in Chirbazaar.
Thackeray, who was arrested in the case, told the DRI that between January and April, Jain and his brother of JK Jewels had supplied a total of 300 kg of smuggled gold to customers represented by them.
Further investigation into the case revealed that Ward had visited SK Shah's office in January and proposed to give gold bars in exchange for cash. Ward introduced Kalewal to him and it was decided that he would give around 200 kg of gold to SK Shah in exchange for cash payment, once the gold was delivered, Sahil Shah would sell it in the local market and give cash to Kalewal. Jain would then sell the gold to Thackeray on cash basis. According to the DRI, other key members of the syndicate, Tejas Shah of LK Shah & Sons, hawala operators, etc. are yet to be arrested.
