The other goods which were seized from the private courier (angadia) Mahesh Parasmal Oswal by the civic staff included the consignment of calculators, gun metal, copper wires, fans, brass sheets and ball bearings, totally worth Rs 1.17 lakh.

According to the written statement submitted to Additional Municipal Commissioner Deepak Kapoor by Oswal, the confiscated gold ornaments were to be delivered to Kawadia Jewellers, Motiwale Jewellers, Jaihind Jewellers, Satyapedhi, Viraj Jewellers and Sumit Jewellers.

Speaking to media persons, Kapoor said that he had received a tip late last night that these goods were being brought to Pune through a private mini luxury bus.

A civic squad led by Shashikant Paranjape, Girish Bhale and Ravi Vharade was rushed to Lonavla late last night. The private luxury bus (MH-12-FA-0594), owned by Chintamani Travels, Mumbai, arrived in Lonavla around 1 am.

The squad followed the bus which drove towards Pune after a brief halt at Lonavla. They intercepted the bus as it neared Khadiche Maidan in Somwar Peth, in the wee hours today.

Though there was not a single passenger in the bus, underneath every passenger seat was a box containing goods on which octroi was not paid. During the interrogations, Oswal claimed that the bus was owned by him. He had opted to use the luxury bus as the private passenger buses normally go unnoticed at the civic octroi posts.

Kapoor said that he has issued orders to the civic staff at all the octroi posts to intercept any private luxury bus if they have received information or suspect that it might be carrying goods on which octroi was not paid. He, admitted that in some cases such searches may inconvenience passengers.

``I have asked the staff not to harass genuine passengers,'' Kapoor said, adding, ``I will have to opt for stringent measures if the city jewellers continue their attempts to evade octroi''.

He pointed out to media persons that this was the tenth case during the past six months wherein a private courier was caught while transporting silver and gold items into the city limits. The private courier Oswal was fined Rs 1.27 lakh on May 2 when he was caught transporting a consignment of silver items. ``Despite being fined a month ago, he still continues to evade octroi,'' Kapoor said, adding that the PMC had returned all the confiscated goods to Oswal this afternoon after he paid a fine of Rs 71,000.

Kapoor said he has forwarded a proposal to the State government and civic city improvement committee urging them to empower the administration to lodge cases under the Indian Penal Code (IPC) against habitual octroi evaders.