Two passengers held Rs 5.46 crore smuggled gold seized at RGIA

Hyderabad: The officials of Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI), Hyderabad on Thursday recovered 14 Kg smuggled gold worth Rs 5.46 crore at Rajiv Gandhi International Airport at Shamshabad.

According to sleuths, based on specific intelligence, they rummaged the area around two seats bearing numbers 31 A and 32 A of Air India Flight AI 952, which has come from Dubai to India on early hours on Thursday and found seven long strips, tightly wrapped in black adhesive tape concealed inside hollow pipes located under both the seats.

The two passengers, one is from South Korea and the other from China confessed and revealed in the interrogation that they had carried gold with them from Dubai and had concealed the smuggled gold beneath their seats before exiting from the Aircraft. After unwrapping the black tapes, the officials found 112 yellow metal bars of 24-carat gold found to be the purity of 99.5 per cent, weighing a total of 14 Kg valued at Rs 5. 46 crores.

On enquiry when the two passengers did not produce any documents to prove the licit purchase or import of the gold, the officials seized the gold under Customs Act, 1962 and by arresting the two are investigating.