Gold worth ` 58 lakh seized in airport

DHNS

Feb 15, 2014 : The officers of Customs at Mangalore International Airport have thwarted three more attempts to smuggle gold by seizing gold buckle, gold rods and gold sheets worth Rs 58 lakh from three passengers on Friday.

 

They seized one gold buckle set and two gold rods weighing 1022.07 grams and valued at Rs 30,91,732, concealed as leather belt buckle and inside hair styling crimper set in a suitcase, from a passenger Sheminadh Puthen Purayil.

According to a press release, Sheminadh Puthen Purayil, a resident of Kuthuparamba in Kannur had arrived at the airport by Air India Express flight from Dubai.
 

While frisking the passenger by hand held metal detector, customs officer grew suspicion about the buckle set of the leather belt worn by him whose X-ray image showed the presence of high density metal. When asked whether it was gold, he replied negatively.

But on rubbing the buckle set, the coating was removed indicating the presence of yellow metal. Apart from this, he was also found to be carrying a hair styling crimper set wherein two yellow coloured metal rods wrapped with black plastic covers were found concealed in two cylindrical tube like part.

The customs officials also seized two gold sheets totally weighing 466.500 grams and valued at Rs 14,11,162 concealed in the base of a black coloured rexine trolley bag from a passenger Riyas Kuchanath Purayil. Riyas is a resident of Haripuram in Kasaragod district. He had arrived at Mangalore International Airport by Air India Express flight from Dubai.

In the third case, officials seized two gold sheets, totally weighing 466.000 grams and valued at Rs14,09,650 concealed in the base of a brown coloured rexine trolley bag from the possession of a passenger named Shereef Abdulkareem, a resident of Thekkil in Kasaragod district. He too arrived from Dubai in the Air India Express fight. Further investigation is under progress in all the three cases, under the guidance of Commissioner D Purushotham.

The operation was conducted under the supervision of Assistant Commissioner of Customs Krishna Kumar Prasad. The passenger was arrested and was remanded to judicial custody.  The customs officials have seized over 8,500 gram gold worth Rs 2.57 crore from January 2014 till date.