Odisha officials search SUV looking for narcotics, find cash, 100kg silver bricks
Odisha excise officials said two persons, both of them from Kolkata, were in the sports utility vehicle that was stopped at the toll gate
BHUBANESWAR: Over 100kg of silver bricks, ornaments and cash of around ₹12 lakh were seized from a secret chamber of a car by a team of Odisha excise officials on Thursday at a toll gate on NH-16 in Cuttack district . Officials said the vehicle was intercepted on a tip-off that there would be an attempt to move narcotics through the tollgate.
Excise officials said two persons, Dilip Mandal and Atulya Pal of Kolkata, were on their way from Ganjam’s Aska to Kharagpur in West Bengal in a white SUV when they were intercepted at NHAI tollgate at Tangi in Cuttack district. On frisking, the excise officials recovered over 100kg of silver bricks and ₹12 lakh cash from them.
Excise department deputy commissioner Rajat Praharaj said: “Our guards were posted at the toll gate from last night over tip-offs that a huge amount of narcotics was to pass through the tollgate. Our staff found this car speeding towards the toll gate and stopped it. On searching, they recovered the silver bricks and cash from a secret chamber in the car.”
Praharaj said GST officials have been informed and they will interrogate the two persons.
One of the accused told the excise officials that he was to be paid ₹1,000 for every day of travel apart from a lumpsum amount of ₹3,000
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