3 Air India employees arrested for helping gold smugglers
Darpan News Desk IANS, 19 Nov, 2021 09:12 AM
Jaipur, Nov 19 (IANS) Three employees of Air India, accused of having a role in the smuggling of gold, have been arrested, officials said on Friday.
They have been accused of having a hand in a recent incident wherein 1.5 kg gold -- stored beneath an aircraft's seat -- was seized.
A passenger, who was later questioned in the matter, revealed the involvement of three employees of Air India.
All three of them have been arrested on charges of assisting in gold smuggling.
The Customs Department claims that the smugglers had brought gold worth Rs 75 lakh hidden under the seat with the help of the arrested individuals.
"...or else, it was not possible to hide the gold under the seat of the plane," an official said.
According to the information received, this is the first time that the collusion of airline employees has come to the fore in the case of gold smuggling.
On November 16, at Jaipur airport, the Customs team had seized gold from an aircraft.
A senior Customs official said that gold was hidden under the seat of the plane with the connivance of Shivram Meena, Gyanchand Meena and Kaushal Verma.
During questioning, it was revealed that they have been working for Air India for the last four years.
Jasbir Singh Virk, president of Bhartiya Sikh Sangthan, has underlined the need to intensify the ongoing farmers' agitation and said that there was a need to shore up strength at the Delhi borders.
Punjab BJP President Ashwani Sharma told IANS that to control infighting in its party state unit, the Congress leadership made Channi ji (Charanjit Singh Channi) the Punjab Chief Minister but insulted the Dalit community by not allowing him to lead the party in the upcoming state Assembly polls.
The government and drug controller's office will have to take a decision on the third booster dose based on data and cases as times goes on and including how effective the vaccine is on the Delta virus variant, he added.
The petitioner said the state had passed the Punjab Scheduled Castes and Backward Classes (Reservation in Services) Act of 2006 but it has never implemented it in case of appointment in judicial services.
In the run up to the assembly polls scheduled early next year, the BJP Punjab unit has launched several campaigns to strengthen its organisational structure at ground level. Sharma said that work is progressing at good pace for formation of a 21-member committee at each polling booth.
