24 kg gold missing in 34 years

The customs authorities have reported around 35 cases of gold pilferage from its vault at IGI Airport. According to an FIR registered by the authorities, over 24 kg gold has gone missing in the last 34 years. A probe carried out by the customs revealed that the said gold was replaced with non-precious metal in most cases. A five-member committee of top customs officials found the gross weight of gold in the 35 cases at present to be 35.133 kg as against the total net, as per the department record, to be around 59.612 kg. The gold deficit is around 24.479 kg. The valur of missing gold is in crores.

Out of these 35 cases, the first case was one in which gold was confiscated in April 1982 from a passenger identified as Mrs Sawai Interasatkul, a Thai national and three others — Mr Pramoth Intrasatkulm, Mr Amnaj Sethi and Mr Amar Singh Sethi. They had arrived at the IGI Airport from Bangkok. Later during the examination, five Karas and one gold chain collectively weighing 360 gm, valued at `43,200, were recovered from Mrs Sawai Interasatkul.

While recently inspecting a seizure of precious jewellery from the case, officials found that the gold items had been replaced with a cheap metal slab. As per the “stock taking report” on March 15, 2016, the total weight of this packet was 1,699.2 gm whereas the net available weight of gold has been found to be 832.4 gm by the committee constituted for the purpose in these cases, indicating a difference of 866.8 gm.

The packages from which gold have been stolen, were handled by a large number of officers at some stage or the other, either as seizing officers or as in-charge of valuable godown or as ACO (case property). A team of officers has made efforts to collect all the relevant records, viz. case files, godown registers etc. Efforts have also been made, with some degree of success, to identify names of the officers from the signatures available at relevant places.

Sources said, “All those who are responsible for perpetrating this huge loss to the government revenue, whether private persons or government servants, and whether by collusion or by criminal negligence, are to be identified and punished.”

Sources further said that the possibility that these cases involve common modus operandi and /or miscreant(s) cannot be ruled out.

“We are not able to ascertain how much gold has been stolen and secretly replaced with fakes or other material that resemble gold,” said an official.

The Delhi police has registered a case and the investigation is going on.