Mumbai airport customs seizes gold worth Rs 79.8 lakh

The Air Intelligence Unit (AIU) of Mumbai airport customs, in two separate incidents, seized 3.4 kilogrammes of gold worth Rs 79.88 lakh from two passengers, who were coming from Riyadh and Dubai respectively, on Saturday morning.

The unit has booked both under the Customs Act and arrested them. As the wedding season will start in a week’s time, AIU officials are anticipating gold smuggling attempts by Indian citizens.

The rise in demand for the yellow metal is another reason why officials have been on their toes.

The first seizure was made at about 6.30 am, when AIU officers intercepted an Indian citizen, Mohammed Aslam Khadirmeeran Hussaina, who was arriving from Riyadh by a Jet Airways flight. He was carrying a water dispenser with him. Due to his suspicious behaviour, he was stopped at the green channel, and 17 gold bars of 10 tolas each, three gold coins and a gold pendent totally weighing 2 kg was recovered from the compressor of the dispenser, which the officials had to break apart. The gold is worth Rs 47.1 lakh, according to officials.

Around 8.15 am, another Indian citizen Ashraf Anwar Khan, who was behaving in a suspicious manner, was intercepted. When officials manually checked him they recovered 12 gold bars of 10 tolas each totally weighing 1.399 kg from Khan’s front pocket. The gold, which is valued at Rs 32.79 lakh, was wrapped in brown cello tape.