Man held with 16 gold bars worth Rs 60 lakh at Delhi airport

Customs officials said the gold bars were concealed in two emergency lights the man was carrying in his check-in luggage.

Customs officials on Monday arrested a 23-year-old man from the Indira Gandhi International Airport and recovered 16 gold bars worth over Rs 60 lakh, found concealed in two emergency lights the man was carrying in his check-in baggage.

The seized gold bars weigh 1.8 kg and are worth Rs 60.17 lakh. The arrested man had come to Delhi from Riyadh via Bahrain. (HT File / Photo used for representational purpose)

In another operation on Sunday, the Customs arrested two men who were allegedly trying to smuggle foreign currency — including yen, riyal, US dollar and dinars worth Rs 33.5 lakh — out of the country.

According to senior customs officers, a team of customs officers intercepted a man who had landed at Delhi airport from Riyadh around 1 am from Terminal 3. The man had come to Delhi from Riyadh via Bahrain. He was requested to cooperate for a detailed search.

“As we passed his baggage through the X-ray scanner, we spotted something suspicious. We found two emergency lights in it. When we opened the lights, we found eight gold bars concealed in each of it. The gold bars weigh 1.8 kg and are worth Rs 60.17 lakh. The gold was seized and the man was arrested,” said Amandeep Singh, additional commissioner, Customs, Delhi airport.

Another officer, who is probing the matter, said during questioning, the man said he had been handed over the bag by a man in Riyadh. “He said he was told that someone would meet him in Delhi to receive the bag. He hails from Muzaffarnagar in UP and was a carrier. He was offered a share of the profit. His name cannot be revealed as investigations to trace his contacts in Delhi are underway,” the officer said.

Elaborating on Sunday’s interception, Singh said, “We recovered 3,62,000 yen, 2,042 Kuwait dinar, 2,140 Bahrain dinar, 4,555 Omani riyal, 4,905 euros, 7,000 Qatari riyal and 12,725 US dollars. The foreign currency is worth Rs 33,51,441.”

Last Tuesday, Customs had arrested a woman after recovering four gold bars weighing 2 kg from her bag. The woman had landed in from Bangkok and the gold was valued at Rs 64.34 lakh.