The minister was speaking at an impressive ceremony at the Naval Dockyard, Visakhapatnam, after the commissioning of INS Sandhayak (Yard 3025), the first Survey Vessel Large (SVL) ship, into the Indian Navy.
Indian Navy ships Cheetah, Guldar and Kumbhir were decommissioned on Saturday after rendering four decades of glorious service to the nation.
The seizure of huge quantities of snake venom and arrest of four persons from Asansol yesterday has unearthed a new corridor of inter-state snake venom smuggling racket, feels forest officials.
It is worth highlighting that last month, the Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs Chairman, Sanjay Kumar Agarwal, mentioned that during the last financial year, around 3.5 tonnes of gold, 18 crore cigarette sticks, 140 metric tonnes of red sanders, and 90 tonnes of heroin were seized along with other drugs.
It has been ascertained that these passengers were operating as part of an intricate gold smuggling network.
The recovered gold and cigarettes of foreign brands has been seized under section 110 of Customs Act and further investigation is being carried on.
The injured smuggler, however, managed to crawl back to Pakistan side of the border.
it is critical to emphasise and generate global awareness about the fact that the root cause of illicit trade lies in smuggling, he added.
According to the South Bengal Frontier of the BSF, the border guards clashed with more than 20 armed Bangladeshi miscreants late last night when the latter crossed the barbed wire on the India-Bangladesh border and entered almost 200 meters inside the Indian side to smuggle Phensedyl cough syrup.
The 29 people arraigned as accused include those who were directly involved in carrying gold, those who bought it and those who acted as agents.
