Two held at Mumbai Airport with gold concealed in undergarments
Darpan News Desk IANS, 17 Jan, 2023 11:04 AM
Mumbai, Jan 17 (IANS) The Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) on Tuesday said that they arrested two persons at the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport here and seized 8.230 kgs of gold in paste form valued at Rs 4.54 crore.
The DRI said that they got specific intelligence input that gold in paste form is being smuggled into India by a syndicate of passengers who are traveling from Dubai to Mumbai on January 17.
"Surveillance was mounted by DRI officers at the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport. The suspected passengers were identified and intercepted by the team at the airport. A thorough examination of the passengers led to recovery of 8.230 kgs of gold in paste form. The value of the gold is about Rs 4.54 crore," an official said.
The DRI said that most of the recovered gold was concealed in undergarments of the passengers making it extremely difficult to detect. This is a unique modus operandi busted by the DRI, indicating the uphill task faced by its officers on a regular basis to check the syndicates smuggling gold in various forms into the country.
"Two persons have been arrested in the above case. Further investigation in the instant case is under progress to unravel the complete chain of persons involved in the illegal inflow of gold into the country," the official added.
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The accused have been identified as Amit Kedia (30), resident of SBI Colony near Kalyan Vihar; Sachin Gupta (36), resident of Pitampura; Rohit Jain (36), resident of Shalimar Bagh; and Pradeep Kumar alias Rahul alias Pradhan (34), resident of Model Town-III.
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"Three passengers were placed under arrest for carrying 1,872 grams gold dust concealed in specially designed undergarments whereas 2,840 grams was recovered during rummaging the flight's toilet," a Customs official said.
