Gold bars worth Rs 6.3 crore seized from sea bed; Two arrested

The Coast Guard and Directorate of Revenue Intelligence officials on Wednesday recovered gold bars worth Rs 6.3 crore from the sea bed in the Gulf of Mannar off the Tamil Nadu coast.

Two people have been arrested in this connection. The two day joint operation took place after DRI sources received a tip off that gold was being smuggled into India through sea from Sri Lanka.

The team then approached the fishing boat on Tuesday and on seeing them, the two fishermen dropped the contraband covered in cloth bags mid-sea, the sources said.

The fishermen were nabbed and their boat seized at Mandapam near Rameswaram on March 3, a defence release said. A DRI official said the team could not retrieve the gold as it was late in the evening and did so on Wednesday morning.

In the joint operation, a team of officers in Coast Guard Hovercraft H-197 and interceptor craft IC-114 undertook diving operations in the Gulf of Mannar region and recovered more than 100 gold bars, totally weighing 15 kgs.