Gold worth Rs 40 lakh seized from two passengers at Chennai airport

CHENNAI: Customs officials at Chennai airport seized gold worth Rs 40 lakh from two passengers and arrested one of them.
On Wednesday night, based on intelligence, officials intercepted Abdul Rahman Khan, 36, of Chennai who arrived from Dubai in an Air India Express flight (IX 1644). When questioned, the passenger confessed to having concealed three bundles of gold paste in his rectum.
A total of 416 gram of gold worth at Rs 21.8 lakh was recovered and seized under Customs Act. He was arrested.
On Wednesday night, customs officials noticed a man walking hurriedly in a suspicious. He was stopped and searched. A wallet was recovered in which gold plates and coins were found concealed.
The man, identified as Avinash, 28, is a network engineer who is an employee of NIKOM Infra Solutions, an outsourced firm looking after maintenance of CCTV cameras and other at the airport. On questioning, he informed that the wallet was handed over to him by a passenger named Mohammad Ghouse, 26, (who arrived in the same Air India Express flight) with instructions to deliver the same to him outside the airport in the parking area.
He was taken to the parking area where the passenger was waiting for him. Both passenger and private person were detained at time of handing over. From the wallet of passenger, four rectangular gold plates weighing 248 gram, and two gold coins weighing 99.9 gram (totally weighing 348 gram), worth at Rs 18.2 lakh, were recovered.