Cuttack: The Commissionerate Police Thursday claimed to have busted an illegal gold trading racket and seized huge quantities of low caratage gold ornaments. The racket was involved in interstate transport of gold by evading goods and services tax (GST), police said.
Members of the racket were transporting low caratage gold ornaments and gold-plated imitation jewellery from Punjab to the Silver City through trains, said Cuttack Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP) Prateek Singh.
The police seized around 2 kg low caratage gold ornaments and 27,800 pieces of gold-plated imitation jewellery from the racketeers. The market value of the seized gold ornaments could be around Rs 53 lakh, sources said.
On a tip-off, a team of Malgodown police carried out a raid at Station Bazar in the city here Wednesday evening and caught three persons—Gurjeet Singh, Manpreet Singh and Ranjan Sahoo—for illegal transportation and sale of gold ornaments, said the DCP.
Gurjeet and Manpreet used to transport low caratage gold ornaments from Amritsar to Cuttack through trains while Sahoo was selling the jewellery to the locals. They were evading the GST, added the DCP.
Preliminary enquiry revealed that there was tax evasion in the transport of gold. The GST officials have collected Rs 3, 23, 118 as tax and penalties from the trio, said Malgodown police in-charge Trupti Ranjan Nayak.
