Title - Gold, jewels worth Rs 1.80 crore seized by GRP on Vidarbha Express

NAGPUR: A team of Government Railway Police (GRP) intercepted two consignments of valuables worth around Rs1.80 crore from Vidarbha Express on Wednesday. The consignments, mostly comprising gold biscuits and diamonds, were being taken by representatives of Gandhibagh-based Khandelwal Logistics courier in the S-8 coach of the Nagpur-bound train.It is learnt that the GRP's local crime branch team received information about the consignment reaching Nagpur and meant for traders in different parts of Vidarbha. Two courier men, identified as Sham Bankwal and Prashant Dighe, were found carrying the two bags.During searches, Bankwal was found to be carrying valuables worth around Rs37 lakh while Dighe was carrying material costing around Rs1.43 crore. The police team took the duo to Nagpur GRP police station and seized the material, as they could not produce relevant documents related to the consignments. It is suspected that the valuables had been sent through illegal hawala channels.Apart from police, officials from income tax, sales tax and octroi too reached the place to question the duo. Members of the local jewellers' associations too had reached the police station. A LCB team under Senior PI Raja Pawar conducted the operation under additional superintendent of police, Nagpur rural, Prakash Jadhav, who is holding charge of SP, Nagpur GRP.