Gold worth crores seized from Bus passenger ...

Have seen many electric scooters … have not heard of an electric bus thus far…….. before that ‘Bus”  archaically also omnibus,  is a road vehicle designed to carry passengers.  Tamilnadu has a well developed bus service and many people prefer travelling by bus from places like Tirunelveli, Madurai, Coimbatore, Trichy to Chennai…

There are reports of the first of its kind electric bus in the country, being inaugurated with much fanfare at Bangalore and that it has got a good response with many taking the ride just to find out how it feels to be on the emission-free bus.  On day 1, the bus reportedly made 6 trips and ran around 170 kms ~ and it remains to be seen how it fares on Indian roads; it  travels at a speed of 60-65 km per hour in the city during peak hours and takes about two hours to cover the distance between Kempe Gowda Bus Station and Kadugodi with the time reducing by half an hour during non-peak hours. It is introduced by the Bangalore Metropolitan Transport Corporation (BMTC).  Express states that although the bus has been in Bangalore for over a month now, it was officially launched by Transport Minister Ramalinga Reddy after getting the required permissions from the Transport Department.

The first para started with bus being ‘passenger carriers’ ….to my dismay – there was a claim from a big industrial house for non-delivery of precision machinery valued at 30 lakhs (nearly 2 decades ago !) – sent through a bus, for a freight of Rs.85/-

Elections are around the corner and there would be weird news ! ~ in 2011, there was buzz of crisp notes totalling Rs 5.11 crore seized; the unaccounted money had been kept in five travel bags on the roof of a private bus in Tiruchirappali.  The seizure was effected by RDO S Sangitha of Trichy Revenue Dept.  With elections just eight days away, the hard cash was suspected to be meant for distribution to woo voters in a state bringing to fore that money power was in full play.   The bus had been found parked at an isolated place, purportedly belonged to a politician – the official summoned a CRPF constable posted nearby, then herself climbed atop the bus and found crisp currencies stuffed inside gunny bags, it was stated.

Thanga Pathakkam brought glory to Sivaji Ganesan for his depiction of honest SP Choudhry…. remember that in a  scene, when illegal money was to be handed over – they would show a suitcase full of gold biscuits.  ….. you could have seen that in many movies….a suitcase for sure can contain many biscuits !! ~ going by today’s rate of 1 gm @ 3030 – a kg of gold could cost Rs.30,30,000/- [most likely that it would be lesser when bought in quantity of a kg !!] – but if you have [can have !!] say 50 biscuits in a suitcase, it simply is 50kgs + weight, which obviously cannot be carried so easily !!!

Today’s the Hindu reports of seizure by the officials of the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI),  of Gold biscuits weighing about 10.25 kg from two passengers on board a private bus at Vandakottai near Aranthangi on Sunday. According to the newsitem, acting on a tip-off, the Customs officials conducted vehicle checks on the Aranthangi-Pudukottai highway in the early hours. They intercepted a Chennai-bound omnibus from Thondi in Ramanathapuram district and carried out a search on the passengers. The officials found two passengers smuggling the gold biscuits from S.P. Pattinam near Thondi. They had concealed the valuables around the waist.This reportedly  is the second major seizure of gold in this region in the last one month. Earlier, the Tiruchi Customs Preventive Zone seized 18 pieces of gold weighing 4.5 kg and valued at Rs. 1.38 crore from a state transport corporation bus near Pudukottai on February 12. The gold pieces were recovered from a rexine bag found abandoned in the bus.

March is the month whence salary earners breathe-hard as they will have to make Income tax related savings, lest end up having a huge cut in their salary…..

With regards – S. Sampathkumar

10^th Mar 2014.

Photos courtesy :The Hindu.