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Man’s bid to smuggle gold worth ₹11 lakh foiled by customs
The customs officials at the Pune airport caught a man smuggling gold worth over ₹11 lakh. The man was identified as Shaikh Tarique Mahmood. Mahmood was on a SpiceJet flight SG-52 from Dubai to Pune on Thursday. The customs officials conducted a personal search of the man and found two gold biscuits cut in 4 pieces, four small pieces of gold with oxidised plating, two heavy gold coins and one gold key-chain ring with rhodium plating.
The customs officials at the Pune airport caught a man smuggling gold worth over ₹11 lakh. The man was identified as Shaikh Tarique Mahmood. Mahmood was on a SpiceJet flight SG-52 from Dubai to Pune on Thursday.
The customs officials conducted a personal search of the man and found two gold biscuits cut in 4 pieces, four small pieces of gold with oxidised plating, two heavy gold coins and one gold key-chain ring with rhodium plating. The gold, which was seized later by the customs officials, was wrapped in counterfeit currency notes in Mahmood's wallet.
"The gold key chain ring was recovered from a souvenir key-chain item and was made to look like a gift article," read a statement from Harshal Mete, deputy commissioner, customs at Pune international airport.
The seized gold was found to be 349.93 gm in weight and its worth was estimated to be around ₹11,07,878 by the customs officials.
Mahmood agreed to have smuggled the gold and recorded a statement to that effect. Further investigation in the matter is on.
DRI seizes 3 kg smuggled gold; two arrested
The Directorate of revenue intelligence (DRI) arrested two men for smuggling 3kg of gold. The two were identified as Shaikh Faiyum and Shaikh Javed and were travelling on an Air India flight from Delhi to Aurangabad on Tuesday, when they were intercepted, according to a statement issued by DRI. The two were arrested under Section 104 of Customs Act, 1962 and later released on bail. The two were arrested based on "specific intelligence" received by DRI. The foreign-marked gold bricks were in 12 pieces.
The two confessed to have smuggled the gold. The gold was brought on another Air India flight from Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, to Mumbai. The bricks were concealed in metal cylinders, according to DRI.
