Gold worth Rs 50 lakh seized at Chennai airport

CHENNAI: Smuggled gold worth Rs 50 lakh was seized by air customs officials at the Anna International Airport in two separate cases reported during the weekend. Based on a tip-off, officials from the air intelligence unit of the office of the commissioner of customs conducted a thorough search in an Air India flight that arrived from Sharjah via Thiruvananthapuram.
They found a white cloth pouch hidden under the cushion of one of the seats. On examination, the officials found eight gold bangles and four gold chains of 24 carat purity, weighing 1.25kg valued at Rs 41 lakh. The officials later apprehended Mullukan Abdul Rahman Basheer Ahamed, 56, of Thiruvarur, who travelled from Sharjah to Chennai and had occupied the seat. He was arrested after he confessed to smuggling the gold.
On Saturday night, air intelligence unit officers intercepted Abdul Bakri, 27, of Chennai, a passenger who arrived from Kuala Lumpur via Singapore in a Singapore Airlines flight, at the exit of customs arrival hall on suspicion of carrying gold. When the officer frisked him, they found one gold piece weighing 50 gram hidden in his pant’s pocket and three bundles of gold in rubbery spread concealed in his rectum. Gold weighing 217 gram of 24 carat purity was extracted. A total of 267 grams of gold valued at Rs 9 lakh was recovered.