Delhi: Two held with smuggled gold worth Rs 50 lakh

In a throwback from the old Bollywood movies, gold has again started becoming a highly smuggled commodity. Cases of seizures of the precious metal has seen a spike at the Capital’s Indira Gandhi International Airport.

In a throwback from the old Bollywood movies, gold has again started becoming a highly smuggled commodity.

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Cases of seizures of the precious metal has seen a spike at the Capital’s Indira Gandhi International Airport. The rise in cases is being ascribed to the rise duty on import of gold from 6% to 8%.

In the latest incident, customs officials have arrested at least two passengers in the past 24 hours and recovered gold worth over Rs 50 lakh from their possession.

In first case on Thursday night, a Sri Lankan national, coming from Dubai was stopped for checking. “We are already on alert as several cases of gold smuggling had surfaced after the government increased the duty on import of gold from 6% to 8%. Most of the arrested passengers were coming from Dubai. In fact, now almost every passenger coming from Dubai is being frisked at arrival,” an airport source said.

The Sri Lankan was also stopped and frisked but nothing suspicious was found on him. “There was nothing suspicious in his bag either. However, since we had an intelligence input, we decided to scan him. During interrogation, he confessed of having concealed gold bars in his rectum. It was removed and bars weighing 1.5 kg worth Rs 37 lakh were seized,” the source added.

The passenger was placed under arrest as per the Customs Act.

In the second incident on Friday night, an Indian national was arrested and 700gm gold bars recovered from his possession. The accused, however, had adopted a different trick and four gold bars were recovered from his shoes.

“Mohammad Javed, a native of Bihar was checked after he crossed the green channel.

He was asked to remove his shoes and the gold bars were recovered from them. The value of gold seized from him was R17 lakh,” the source added.

Sources said that both the arrested person were carriers and had just undertaken the job for money. “The commission is fixed for them and they are paid after the delivery. The gang member bear their journey expenses and are paid extra if they succeed to smuggle out gold,” he further said.