Date:02/12/2008 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2008/12/02/stories/2008120259040300.htm

Andhra Pradesh - Visakhapatnam

Semi-precious stones seized; five arrested in city

Staff Reporter

The accused have been involved in the business for the last six years, says DCP

They purchased the stones from the Agency areas in Visakahaptnam district
The precious and semi-precious stones are valued between Rs.25 and Rs.30 lakhs, says DCP

VISAKHAPATNAM: Police Commissioner N. Sambasiva Rao’s plan to keep a tab on people from outside the city staying in rented houses, in the wake of the attacks in Mumbai, has begun to pay rich dividends.

Announcing this at a media conference on Monday, Deputy Commissioner of Police (Law and Order) K.V.V. Gopala Rao said that the heightened vigil has led to the arrest of four persons from Tamil Nadu and a local man for dealing with semi-precious stones without proper licence. On a tip-off, Two Town CI M. Narasimha Rao and his team conducted a raid on a house at Allipuram on Sunday evening and seized about 56 kg of precious and semi-precious stones like alex (dark gray), cats eye (white and gray) siliminate (black and brown) and moon stones in green, black and red colours.

The accused purchased the stones from Narsipatnam, Chintapalli, Araku and Paderu in the Agency areas of Visakhapatnam district. They process the raw material at their rented house located in an apartment complex.

They have been involved in the business for the last six years. The house owner stays in Hyderabad and comes only to collect the rent. Mr. Venugopala Rao said that the cost of the precious and semi-precious stones would be between Rs.25 and Rs.30 lakhs. Five grinding machines, three table lamps and three table balances that were used in the processing of the stones were also seized in the raids. The accused used to sell the stones, after cutting and polishing, in Visakhapatnam, Jaipur, Chennai and also export them to Bangkok, Singapore, Sri Lanka and other countries without any licence. The names of the accused are: Mubarak Basha, 30, Hasan Hussain, 32, Mohd. Gulzar Ahammad, 27, Abdul Razak, 52 (all from Tamil Nadu) and Syam Sundar Agarwal, 41 (from the city).

Two Town SIs K.S.N. Konda, S. Tata Rao and P. Babu Rao participated in the raid.

ACP Konda Reddy was present at the media conference.