Gold seized from seat pocket of flight at Hyderabad Airport

Hyderabad, Nov 30 (IANS) Customs officials at Rajiv Gandhi International Airport here seized 472.8 grams gold in paste form from seat pockets of a flight that arrived from Guwahati.

Acting on specific intelligence, Customs sleuths recovered in gold paste form worth Rs. 23.33 lakh.

The Customs department booked a case for smuggling of gold against an unknown passenger arriving by 6E187 from Guwahati on Monday. An official said on Tuesday that efforts were on to track down the passenger.

This comes a day after the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) arrested a man and seized gold worth over Rs. 1 crore. The accused was working in a private firm providing catering services to an airline company.

According to DRI, the accused had picked up the gold concealed in an aircraft to hand it over to receivers on November 27. DRI sleuths intercepted the accused near the airport when he was carrying smuggled foreign origin gold.

They seized two gold bars, weighing a kg each, bearing foreign markings and two thin gold sheets weighing 100 grams each. The value of the total seized yellow metal was Rs. 1.09 crore.

The DRI found that as per the instructions from the handlers, the accused was picking up gold concealed in the aircraft at the time of loading or unloading food trays. He was picking up the contraband from flights arriving from Gulf countries.

The investigators were trying to gather more information about the operations of the gang.