DRI raids premises of Sarafa trader in Durg

Bhilai, May 25:
A special team of Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) conducted raids at the premises of a renowned Sarafa trader in Durg and Raipur on Tuesday. The bullion trader is also the State Vice President of Chhattisgarh Chambers of Commerce. Within few hours, a large number of office bearers and members of Chhattisgarh Chambers gathered at Durg City Kotwali and protested against the DRI raids. They alleged that the DRI sleuths were misbehaving with the family members of the Sarafa trader. Interrogation and searching was on till filing of this report. The DRI officials did not disclose about the items and documents found or seized during the raid. According to information, a 10-member DRI team conducted raids and searching at the premises of gold merchant Prakash Sankhla on Tuesday. Sankhla owns Navkar Jewellers situated in Gandhi Square, Durg and the family also has a business of utensils. DRI team conducted raids at the shop, residence in Mahavir Colony as well as Sankhla’s office and godown situated in Raipur. The team reached Sankhla’s residence at around 09:00 hrs and launched the search operations. As Prakash Sankhla was not at home, his nephew Nitin Sankhla was questioned and asked to cooperate. But he entered into argument with the DRI team after which the team took him to Durg City Kotwali. Police force was deployed near Sankhla’s residence as large number of traders had started gathering in Mahavir Colony.
In the meanwhile, a large number of Sarafa traders and members of Chhattisgarh Chambers reached City Kotwali to protest against the DRI raid. They asserted that the raid was not fair and the traders are being unnecessarily harassed. Many traders from Raipur also reached here in support of Sankhla. Amidst protests, Prakash Sankhla reached Durg City Kotwali after which the DRI team took him to his residence in Mahavir Colony.
It needs to be mentioned here that the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) is the apex intelligence and investigative agency for matters relating to violation of the Customs Act. According to highly placed sources, the raid was conducted following the confession made by a Madhya Pradesh based jewellery trader who was nabbed by cops with about seven kilograms of gold few days ago. He had acquired gold from Chhattisgarh and was taking it to Madhya Pradesh. During interrogation, the name of Prakash Sankhla had come to fore after which raids were conducted at his premises.
It could be recollected here that it is the second DRI raid in Chhattisgarh in this month. On May 01, DRI team had conducted raids at the Mohini Jewellers of Jasraj Shantilal Baid Firm in Rajnandgaon. The raid had continued for about two days. Later the DRI had informed that about 5000 kgs of silver, 4.5 kgs of gold and Rs 32 lakh cash was recovered from Mohini Jewellers. CG GST and Central Excise teams had also participated in this raid.