Gold stolen from Custom Department Vaults

New Delhi, May 25: A total 16 kg of gold has been stolen, which was protecting in vaults under custom officials at the Indira Gandhi International Airport here, CBI to register a case in this regard.

The theft of gold, valued at about Rs four crore, surfaced during an inspection of vaults by Stock Taking Committee between January 9 to February 21 this year.

Already, This case is in addition to over 38 kg of missing gold reported earlier in which the CBI has already registered FIRs.

The committee during its inspection this year found that about 15.9 kg of gold valued at approximately Rs 4 crore (as per present rates) was missing, the FIR alleged.

It is alleged that the gold was either stolen or replaced with non-valuable material in 23 case properties which were seized by the Customs Department over a period of years.

The Custom department keeps gold seized by it in packets in its vaults. It was alleged that the precious material was replaced with non-valuable material by unknown persons.

A Stock Taking Committee was constituted to analyse valuable items held at customs godown at the airport which found that in a large number of cases the seized gold was missing or was replaced by non-valuable metal.