BHUBANESWAR: The
Customs sleuths on Sunday seized gold worth Rs 31 lakh from two passengers coming from Bangkok and Dubai. This is the second largest haul after May 7, when the sleuths seized Rs 1.8 cr worth of smuggled
yellow metal.
In the past four months more than around Rs 3 cr of smuggled gold has been seized by the Customs and officials of
Directorate of Revenue Intelligence DRI).
Assistant commissioner (Customs)
Sashi Bhushan said the two passengers were from Jagatsinghpur in Odisha and Delhi. “The gold was in the form of chain and kadas. We suspected from their movement and checked their baggage. They were feigning innocence by claiming that the gold ornaments were meant for their personal use,” he told TOI.
The Customs checked the quality of the gold in a laboratory and found that they had more than 99% purity. “In case of 99 per cent purity, it is impossible that any ornament can be made from it. Our suspicion grew from this factor that the gold was given the shape of a chain and kadas only for smuggling. We have detained them for further questioning,” said the officer.
Customs officials said even if gold is shown to for personal use, 20 gram is permissible for males and 40 for females coming from foreign countries. “If the travellers have stayed in a foreign country for more than a year and come with the permissible limit of gold, they will be charged customs duty. If the passengers haven’t stayed for a year and carry permissible quantity of gold, they will have to pay duty 10 per cent of the total worth of gold,” said an officer.
Around a week ago, the sleuths had seized Rs 19 lakh of gold. Mostly, the smuggled gold were hidden by the passengers in rectum.