Man hides 150 gold chains worth `22 lakh in shoes, held

A 26-year-old man thought he had come up with the perfect plan to bring 150 gold chains worth Rs22 lakh into the city without getting caught. He hid the ornaments in the sole of his shoes.

A 26-year-old man thought he had come up with the perfect plan to bring 150 gold chains worth Rs22 lakh into the city without getting caught. He hid the ornaments in the sole of his shoes.

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He was arrested by the Air Intelligence Unit of Mumbai customs on Tuesday morning.

According to officials, Abdul Salam was trying to smuggle 900gm of gold from Dubai by hiding them in his shoes. He arrived in Mumbai around 5am assuming that the customs officials would be tired after the night duty. “He purposely came via Bahrain, as we keep a close watch on flights arriving from Dubai,” said a customs official.

Officials said they were able to catch Salam as they had prior information. The gold was concealed cleverly and could not have been caught during manual checking. An AIU team headed by deputy commissioner of customs Sameer Wankhede stopped him when he tried to walk through the green channel.

Salam admitted that he had purchased the gold in Dubai as the price of the yellow metal was expected to increase in the near future. He said he wanted to sell it in Mumbai at a heavy profit, the official said.

Per tola (10gm) gold costs Rs1,000 less in Dubai as compared to Mumbai. Hence, the amount of gold he was carrying cost Rs90,000 less as compared to the local market. Further, jewellery-making charges are one-third in Dubai as compared to Mumbai.

Customs officials said Salam also attempted to evade customs duty. The duty on gold in non-jewellery form (such as bars and biscuits) is 4% while it is 10% on jewellery.

Salam was released on bail of Rs1 lakh.