Taiwanese man detained in India over alleged gold smuggling

Gold worth $5.6M smuggled from Hong Kong recovered last Friday, with 1 Chinese, 2 South Koreans and several Indians held.

ISTANBUL (AA) – Indian authorities detained a man from self-ruled Taiwan over alleged gold smuggling, Taiwanese media reported on Tuesday.

Two South Koreans and a Chinese man were also been detained while Indian authorities raided several places in the capital New Delhi after gold worth $5.6 million was seized in air cargo, official news agency Focus Taiwan reported.

It added the detained Taiwanese man has been held “incommunicado” while Taiwan’s top representative in New Delhi is “working with Indian authorities to visit the Taiwanese man … (to) ensure that his legal rights be respected.”

Some 85,500 kilograms (188,500 pounds) of gold was allegedly smuggled into India from Hong Kong and it was last Friday that India’s Directorate of Revenue Intelligence during an operation found the gold was “hidden in an air cargo shipment of 80 electroplating machines.”

The report added: “It was disguised in the form of nickel-coated EI-shaped laminated cores used in the machines’ transformers, and about 1 kg (2.2 Ibs) of gold was recovered from each machine.”

If convicted, the detained man can be jailed for up to seven years in India.

The raid on air cargo led to subsequent searches in New Delhi’s Chattarpur and Gurgaon areas where several Indian suspects were held besides additional 5.4 kg (12 Ibs) of gold recovered.

Following the arrests, Taipei Economic and Cultural Center in India led by Baushuan Ger was informed of the unnamed Taiwanese suspect.

Around 300 tons of gold is smuggled into India annually, according to data from India Gold Policy Centre.

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