PUNE: Customs officials on Wednesday recovered
4.371kg gold worth Rs 97 lakh from a 23-year-old man who had arrived at Pune
airport from Abu Dhabi on a Jet Airways flight.
"The man, identified as Saifulla nasar Dudgave of
Kolhapur had arrived from Abu Dhabi on a Jet Airways flight (9W-513) at 4:25am.
He appeared a bit suspicious and tried to go through the Green Channel, but we
stopped him. A detailed search of his items was carried out, after which
4.371kg gold was recovered from a sewing machine and a clothes iron kept in a
pink trolley bag. The rhodium-plated gold was tactfully concealed in the two
items as U-shaped and slender rectangle," a Customs official said.
The sewing machine and the clothes iron were kept in a pink
trolley bag with some clothes. "When questioned, the suspect failed to give
any explanation," he said. Smugglers put a layer of rhodium on the gold
objects to avoid detection. "The seized gold has been verified by the
government valuer as of 18 karat. During questioning, the suspect said someone
at the Abu Dhabi airport gave him the bag and told him to give it to another
person waiting outside the Pune airport," another Customs official said.
He said, "The man didn't know the receiver of the
package. He was simply told that the receiver would approach him once he was
out of the airport." Sources at the Pune airport said the Customs
officials were on alert considering the rise in smuggling attempts. "We
are witnessing quite a few cases of attempted smuggling. The last few months
have recorded five to six cases, but we have been successful in catching them
all. While we are on an alert, we have also requested people to help us by
sharing information about suspicious person/s," the official added.
He said a lucrative reward scheme is in place for people providing information regarding smuggling, sale of narcotics and tax evasion. "The information can be provided to Mahesh Patil, who is a deputy commissioner rank officer, on 020-26051846. The identity of the informers will not be made public," the officer said. This recovery follows the seizure of 606.83g gold worth Rs 18 lakh from a passenger on December 10.
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