DRI Seizes 41 kg Smuggled Gold Worth Rs 62 Crore Across India

The correct answer is the Customs Act, 1962. The release names this statute twice in the same episode near the Indo-Bangladesh border, saying that because the person could not produce documents for lawful possession the gold was seized under the Customs Act, and that he was arrested under the relevant provisions of the same Act. The statute appears again in the case from Chandauli in Uttar Pradesh, where the occupants of a car could not show lawful possession of 22 recovered bars. The other three options name genuine laws that candidates often associate with economic offences, and that is exactly why they have been placed here, but none of them is mentioned in this release. Smuggling of goods across the customs frontier is dealt with under customs law, which is why the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence, functioning under the Ministry of Finance, proceeds under this Act.

The correct answer is the Border Security Force. The release records that the DRI, acting in coordination with the BSF, seized 89 pieces of foreign-origin gold bars weighing around 11.3 kg from a person near the Indo-Bangladesh border at BOP Halderpara, and that the man, unable to produce documents of lawful possession, admitted his involvement and was arrested. The other options are real central armed police forces, but their names do not appear in this release, and only one other police agency is mentioned anywhere in it, namely the police of Chandauli in Uttar Pradesh, who worked with the DRI in the case of the bars hidden beneath the gearbox of a car. Candidates should remember that the same set of operations covered airports, rail routes and the land border, and that the total came to around 41 kg of gold worth about Rs 62 crore.

The correct answer is 24. The release states in its headline and again in the opening paragraph that the operations resulted in the arrest of 24 persons, including three foreign nationals. Option B is the trickiest distractor, because the figure 22 does appear in the release, but it is the number of foreign-origin gold bars concealed in a box beneath the gearbox of a car in the Chandauli case, not a count of people. The arrests were spread across the cases: one man who owned the melting and die-cutting unit in Delhi, one from the vehicle intercepted coming from Punjab, one near the Indo-Bangladesh border, a passenger and his associate at Howrah, five in the Mumbai airport syndicate, two in the treadmill case including a Chinese national, six at Chennai and two at Calicut. Keep the headline trio together: about 41 kg of gold, about Rs 62 crore in value, 24 arrests.