EARLY TIMES REPORT
KISHTWAR, Sept 3: Busting an inter-district gang of sapphire smugglers, police today arrested 11 persons while they were trying to smuggle four precious stones here today.
The estimated cost of the seized sapphire stones was put at over Rs 35 lakh.
The accused were identified as Faqir Chand, son of Mangat Ram of Churyana Kuntwara, Romesh Chander, son of Gulab Chand of Sarthal, Amar Singh, son of Bhagat Ram of Kerthaie, Atholi, Abdul Rashid, son of Habibullah of Kukernag, Anantnag, Mohammad Syed, son of Abdullah Ganie of Kukernag, Shabir Ahmed, son of Lal Din of Saroor, Rajpal Gupta, son of Gopal Gupta of Trikuta Nagar,Jammu, Subash Saraf, son of Chaman Lal of Talab Till0, Jammu, Mukhtiar Shafeeq, son of Mohammad Subhan of Qazigund, Shabir Ahmed Rather, son of Abdul Razaq Rather of Dooru, Anantnag, and Nazir Ahmed Wani, son of Abdul Khaliq Wani of Qazigund.
SSP, Kishtwar, Dr Haseeb Mughal said acting on a tip-off, a trap was laid by police at Kishtwar to lay hands on the accused.
He said 11 accused were arrested in series of raids conducted by police.
Four sapphire-like stones, Rs 2.35 lakh in cash, one Tata Saphari (CH03Z/2361) and 10 cellphones were recovered from the accused, the SSP added.
A case under section 4/5 of Sapphire Act was registered against the accused at the Kishtwar police station.
Dr Mughal said some more arrests were likely to be made in the case. The seized stones would be got examined by local jewellers and FSL, Jammu, he added. |
