KURNOOL: Kurnool has become a transit point for gold and silver smugglers, as seen from a series of seizure of contraband in the recent past. Gold traders in Adoni, Nandyal and the Rayalaseema districts are using couriers to transport gold from South African countries and Dubai to dealers.
The state is losing revenue as zero business is also one of the reasons for the spurt in channelising gold through illicit means, said a police official.
Kurnool police seized 14.8 kg worth Rs 6.86 crore on National Highway 44, near Panchalingala checkpost on the Telangana state-Andhra Pradesh border under the jurisdiction of the Kurnool taluka police station last week.
A couple of days back , the Kurnool Special Enforcement Bureau (SEB) seized 32.3 kg of silver articles and arrested four persons who were smuggling it in a Telanagana state RTC bus and a private vehicle near Panchalingala checkpost early on Wednesday.
The accused were identified as Kurnool residents Mahipal Singh, Kuldeep Singh and Shyam Singh, and Govind Singh from Panchota in Rajasthan.
SEB circle inspector N. Lakshmi Durgaiah said that the accused were to deboard the TSRTC bus near Alampur crossroad in Gadwal district and then reach Pullur village, in the vicinity of Panchalingala checkpost from where they were travelling by a car to go to Kurnool.
Nichenametla Gopal, a gold trader, said there is heavy competition in the business and some unscrupulous traders are resorting to selling gold and silver jewellery without issuing sales invoices and bills and evade GST. It is a revenue loss to the government but customers are not on insisting bills, giving a fillip to the business.
Adoni is a hub of gold business as it is connected on the Chennai-Mumbai rail line. Contraband coming from Sri Lanka is also suspected to be reaching Adoni from Chennai. A few Mumbai traders allegedly deal with the Adoni bullion market, said a person in the know of their operations.
The district police find it challenging to guard the borders with Karnataka and Telangana states.
