Gold worth Rs4.50 crore seized at Chennai airport, 9 held

Acting on inputs that 17 passengers, including four women passengers, who had arrived from Dubai on Friday, were involved in gold-smuggling, the Customs sleuths intercepted them on suspicion and recovered the precious metal.

A total of 8.45 kgs of gold worth ₹4.50 crore have been seized in two incidents at the airport here and nine people, including a woman, arrested in this connection, a top Customs official said on Saturday.

The gold was kept in safes and vaults of the Surana Corporation under the CBI’s lock and seal. (HT Photo)

Acting on inputs that 17 passengers, including four women passengers, who had arrived from Dubai on Friday, were involved in gold-smuggling, the Customs sleuths intercepted them on suspicion and recovered the precious metal.

The metal in paste form was concealed in the rectums. Some passengers had concealed the gold in the form of chains and cut bits in their pant pockets. The seizure made was 8.18 kgs of gold worth ₹4.16 crore.

Nine passengers, including one woman, were arrested, Commissioner of Customs Rajan Chowdhry said. In another similar incident, gold in paste form was recovered from a passenger who arrived from Sharjah today. About 270 gms of gold worth ₹14 lakh were recovered from him, the official said.