Gold seized from seat pocket of flight at Hyderabad Airport
Darpan News Desk IANS, 30 Nov, 2021 12:25 PM
Hyderabad, Nov 30 (IANS) Customs officials at Rajiv Gandhi International Airport here seized 472.8 grams gold in paste form from seat pockets of a flight that arrived from Guwahati.
Acting on specific intelligence, Customs sleuths recovered in gold paste form worth Rs. 23.33 lakh.
The Customs department booked a case for smuggling of gold against an unknown passenger arriving by 6E187 from Guwahati on Monday. An official said on Tuesday that efforts were on to track down the passenger.
This comes a day after the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) arrested a man and seized gold worth over Rs. 1 crore. The accused was working in a private firm providing catering services to an airline company.
According to DRI, the accused had picked up the gold concealed in an aircraft to hand it over to receivers on November 27. DRI sleuths intercepted the accused near the airport when he was carrying smuggled foreign origin gold.
They seized two gold bars, weighing a kg each, bearing foreign markings and two thin gold sheets weighing 100 grams each. The value of the total seized yellow metal was Rs. 1.09 crore.
The DRI found that as per the instructions from the handlers, the accused was picking up gold concealed in the aircraft at the time of loading or unloading food trays. He was picking up the contraband from flights arriving from Gulf countries.
The investigators were trying to gather more information about the operations of the gang.
Earlier, Dhesi sent a letter, signed by over 100 British MPs and Lords, to Prime Minister Boris Johnson on the ongoing farmers' protests, asking him to raise this matter with his Indian counterpart Narendra Modi when they next liaise.
The Chief Minister told the media here that for more than a year since the Central government had brought three agriculture laws for the benefit of farmers, especially small and marginal ones, unfortunately, some farmer unions had been protesting on the Delhi borders.
While the Centre's announcement to repeal three farm laws is seen as a political decision with eye on forthcoming assembly polls in five states, the BJP claims that it has nothing to do with elections as the party has won many states after laws were passed by the Parliament.
On January 12 this year, the Supreme Court had stayed the implementation of the three farm laws after scores of farmers from Punjab, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh pitched their tents on various Delhi borders in protest against the three laws.
A nine-member committee of the Samyukt Kisan Morcha (SKM), the consortium of protesting farmers' bodies, will be meeting on Saturday, and it is likely to put forth four main demands. The meeting will also decide whether the SKM will go ahead with the originally announced 'March Towards Delhi' programme on November 26.
Congress legislator and Punjab unit party president Navjot Singh Sidhu on Friday said the minimum support price (MSP) is the bigger issue than farm laws as it is the lifeline of farmers.
