BHUBANESWAR: Officers of
Air Intelligence unit of Customs at the
Biju Patnaik International Airport (BPIA) on Thursday foiled yet another attempt of smuggling of gold through
Bhubaneswar airport. The officials seized 690.5 grams of gold worth Rs 21, 89,043 from a passenger, who arrived at the city airport from Kuala Lumpur.
The passenger, hailing from Chennai, arrived at the airport from Kuala Lumpur by
Air Asia flight AK-31 in the intervening night of Wednesday and Thursday. Acting on a tipoff, customs officials intercepted the passenger and searched his personal baggage.
“This search led to recovery of four pieces of gold strips of foreign origin delicately concealed in the aluminum linings of the trolley bags, totally weighing 690.550 grams having purity of 99.9 per cent,” said BB Pattnaik, assistant commissioner of customs, BPIA Bhubaneswar.
Further investigation into the matter is in progress, he added.
On May 7, the
directorate of revenue intelligence (DRI) officials had caught three passengers carrying 5.822 kg of smuggled gold worth Rs 1.8 crore outside the airport. It was the largest such haul at the airport. On May 4, customs personnel had seized 301gram of gold worth Rs 9.64 lakh from a passenger coming from Kuala Lumpur.
On June 14, the Customs sleuths had seized gold weighing 355.12 grams worth Rs 11, 37,094 from a passenger, hailing from Kerala. This passenger had hidden the gold in powder form inside his rectum.
In the past four months, smuggled gold worth over Rs 2.5 crore has been seized by customs and officials of the DRI in and outside the airport.
