Member of gang that posed as GST officials held for siphoning off gold

NEW DELHI: A key member of a gang, which siphoned off gold worth Rs 6 crore from a Ludhiana-based jeweller by posing as "GST officials", has been arrested and gold worth Rs4.8 crore recovered, police said.
Police said raids are being conducted to nab others, adding an employee of the jeweller was the insider who tipped off his associates while transporting gold.
The police started an investigation after receiving a complaint by one Ravinder Kumar at Rani Bagh police station. In his statement, Ravinder said he used to purchase gold from Delhi routinely for making jewellery.
"On July 10, Ravinder had sent his driver Balraj and an employee Rajan to take delivery of the gold from Delhi with GST Bills. After taking the delivery around 9pm, both left for Ludhiana in an Ertiga. Around 9.30 pm, a white i20 car stopped their vehicle at Rani Bagh," DCP (outer) Harender Singh said.
Two men, "Inspector Satbir Singh and Inspector Ravi Kumar" from Central GST department, came out of the i20 and claimed having information about transportation of unauthorized gold, police said.
During "checking", they found the gold and asked jeweller's employees to furnish GST receipts, police said, adding Rajan called up Ravinder, who told "GST cops" that he had all the bills but they still "seized" the gold and asked the employees to come to the GST office the next day and get the gold released after showing the receipts.
On July 11, Ravinder went to the concerned office and realised something was amiss as he couldn't find the "officers" or the gold and Rajan too had gone incommunicado, then he approached the police.
"We analysed the footage of CCTV cameras on the stretch and call details were also scanned for leads," the DCP added.
Using electronic and human surveillance, the cops first apprehended Sushil Kumar from Ludhiana and recovered 8 of the 10 missing gold plates, police said.
During interrogation, Sushil disclosed that as a middleman he often visited the GST office and his close friend Rajan allegedly floated the idea to siphon off the gold in a fake GST raid, police added.
Sushil is involved in 18 other criminal cases, cops said, adding they are now looking for Rajan and his associates who were part of the conspiracy.