Pune: Flyer with gold worth Rs 31 lakh hidden in wig nabbed

PUNE: Flyers are adopting increasingly ingenious methods to smuggle gold into the country.
Customs officials at the Pune airport caught a passenger on Monday for allegedly trying to smuggle Rs 31.13 lakh worth of gold into the country by concealing it inside his wig.

The customs authorities said the man, identified as Shehzad Baba Miya Momin, was carrying the gold in a semi-solid paste form, which was concealed in a black polythene bag and held inside the wig with the help of a black belt.
“The gold weighed 957.10 gram and has been valued at Rs 31.13 lakh,” a customs official said, adding that the suspect, a carrier, had come to Pune from Dubai on an Air India Express flight.
He said the method employed by the suspect to smuggle in the gold was novel. “He was wearing a wig even though he has hair. Inside the wig, the gold in semi-solid paste form was spread out in a plastic bag in such a way that they fitted on his head accurately. In order to ensure that the wig didn’t fall, he was wearing some kind of belt around his head to support it,” the official said.
He said as he was walking towards the customs counter, officials found something odd about his profile. “It seems that the man was involved in similar acts earlier. Once he was profiled, we decided to search him thoroughly. It was during the search that the gold was recovered from his wig. The smugglers and carriers tend to use several novel ways to smuggle gold and this is perhaps first such way used by a carrier here,” the official said.
The gold recovered from the passenger was seized with the reasonable belief that it was attempted to be smuggled into the country and was liable to be confiscated under the provision of the Customs Act, 1962. “In his statement, recorded under Section 108 of the Customs Act, the man admitted of possession, carriage, concealment and recovery of the said gold. The man has been arrested now and further investigations are on,” another customs official said.
Sources at the airport said though international flights from Pune have dropped to just two now, it has not had any effect on smuggling. “In maximum number of cases, the carriers have used two flights — that of SpiceJet from Dubai and another of Air India Express flight, to bring gold. So, the attempts to smuggle gold have not gone down. There were two cases in March,” the official said.