Gold bars worth Rs 20.5 lakh seized at airport from Bangkok passenger

BHUBANESWAR: The Customs officials at Biju Patnaik International Airport seized gold worth `20.5 lakh from a passenger on Wednesday. The gold bars, weighing 610 gms. Airport authorities said the CISF personnel deployed at the airport suspected the activity of a passenger Amarjit Singh and frisked him. Singh came from Bangkok around 4 am and was about to leave for New Delhi.

After necessary immigration and custom check he managed to enter Terminal 1 but soon the CISF personnel managed to stop and recover the gold from him.Singh had wrapped gold bars, weighing 610 grams, in a black tape and tucked the two pieces inside his turban.Seziure of gold has become a regular affair in BPIA in the recent months.

Last month, the intelligence unit of Customs had also seized nine pieces of gold bars worth `33.16 lakh from a woman passenger from the airport. The gold bars weighed around 959.99 grams. Airport officials had also recovered 122 packets containing 24,400 cigarettes worth `1.22 lakh from her baggage.