DRI taken for a ride – 52-Kg of gold seized in Ahmedabad is actually lead and copper!!

The embarrassment of the DRI can be well imagined. It came as a shock to them to learn that the 52-Kg of gold it had seized was actually lead and copper with no trace of gold in it. This has been reported in timesofindia.indiatimes.com dated 15 May 2015.

This seizure had been by the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) who had claimed at the time that it had managed to bust a major attempt to smuggle gold worth Rs 14 crore into the country. The so-called gold had been seized from two persons who had been put up in a hotel located on Ashram road and they had been sent to judicial custody.
It gold has turned out to be lead bars with a coating of copper and the 52 bars, each thought to be 1 kg gold, weighed less and have no gold in them but were made of lead and copper.
The discrepancy came to light when DRI had sent the bars to FSL to determine the purity of the 'gold' and the feedback came that the bars are not made of gold but of lead with a coating of copper.
(Image courtesy wikimediacommons.org)

A few more must reads -

Nashik Kumbhmela 2015 – a once in 12-years pilgrimage

Trip to Nashik should take in Shirdi and the Ajanta and Ellora caves

Nashik, a tourist center with links to the epic Ramayana

Nashik, a tourist center with links to the Mahabharata

Kumbhmela 2015 in Nashik – guided tours to wineries and vineyards

Nashik transforms from a place of pilgrimage to an industrial hub


More than 200 Nigerian schoolgirls kidnapped last year by Boko Haram have vanished

Journey to freedom – 5800 migrants rescued from the Mediterranean

Indonesian smugglers stuff yellow-crested cockatoos into plastic bottles to get past customs

Engineering graduate of Hyderabad goes astray, dies because of links with ISIS

Dozens of corpses found in bamboo cages in Thai human trafficking camp

Quick tour of Delhi by ITDC bus