The Customs department today caught a Sri Lankan national at the city international airport and recovered from him 505 grams of gold worth Rs 14.9 lakh, some of which he had swallowed, while some concealed in his rectum, official said.
The Sri Lankan national, Mohamed Faheem, was intercepted by the Air Intelligence Unit (AIU) of Mumbai Customs.
He was cleared from the Customs Green channel. However, on suspicion, when he was directed to pass through the door frame metal detector, it beeped giving indications of metals secreted in his body.
"He voluntarily ejected six cut pieces of gold weighing 205 grams secreted in his rectum," customs official said. The sleuths asked him to pass through the metal detector again, but it beeped again.
"Since the passenger was unable to eject it and as he had confessed that he had swallowed some pieces of gold before arriving to Mumbai from Sri Lanka, he was taken to a local hospital, where he was made to eject 300 grams of gold," the officials said.
The officials added that it is a unique case since the passenger had swallowed 12 pieces of gold and also hidden 6 pieces in the rectum to hide from the Customs department.
Official said that the doctors had a very tought time to retrieve the gold from his stomach and took more than 48 hours to complete the process.
In two other cases, the sleuths intercepted two persons (both natives of Kerala) arriving from Dubai and seized about 2,000 grams of gold worth Rs 57 lakh.
(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)