The Chennai Job: Rs 35-crores silver being smuggled seized

Hyderabad: In what would appear to be a scene enacted from a Tollywood film, an attempt to illegally transport silver worth Rs 35 crore was made in Hyderabad. It is said that the silver was brought from London to Chennai and from there it is peddled into different bullion markets.

On Monday morning, a big container was seen moving with an escort vehicle. For a normal person it would have given an impression that some important material is being transported with necessary police security.

But the hawk-eyed police from Bowenpally seized the container and on inspection it was found that the vehicle was carrying silver bars worth Rs 35 crore. Police arrested four persons, including the driver of the container.

According to D Rajesh, SHO, Bowenpally Police Station, the patrolling police saw two containers belonging to MIST company at the service road adjacent to Suchitra crossroads. The police noticed that two persons were transferring contents from the container to smaller vehicles.

The police team found large silver bars weighing 10,802 kg. When questioned, the driver and those who were with the container failed to furnish necessary documents. The police immediately informed senior officials and took four persons into custody. The police also tried to contact the owners of the silver bars.

On Monday, a person claiming himself to be a manager of Brinks India Company approached the police and showed some invoices to them. As the police was not satisfied with the documents, they informed the matter to IT and GST officials.

The manager reportedly told police that, the large silver bars reached Chennai port by a ship from JP Morgan Company, London. Further, he said, the stock belongs to RBL Ratnakar Bank Limited. The silver from the two containers was being transported to Tirupati, Chittoor and Vijayawada.

The silver was being shifted from Suchitra crossroads to smaller vehicles to be taken to a godown in Mahendra Hills.

The huge haul has raised questions to how porous the borders of the states are despite regular security checks at different points.

The two containers, which had crossed different border check posts in Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana indicates the corruption and loopholes at the check posts, an official said.

The containers did not even possess toll tax receipts of Cantonment. They also did not have clearance certificates of customs officials and the local police was also not informed of transportation of such large quantities of silver.