Gold smuggling attempts foiled in Chennai airport, two held
Darpan News Desk IANS, 12 Apr, 2022 04:04 PM
Chennai, April 12 (IANS) The Air Intelligence officers of Chennai Customs have foiled attempts to smuggle in 4.171 kg of gold valued at Rs 2.01 crore in the last two days, it was announced on Tuesday.
According to Customs, based on intelligence, five male Apassengers who arrived from Dubai by Emirates flight on Monday and two male passengers who arrived from Dubai by Indigo flight on Monday were intercepted at exit gate by Air Intelligence officers.
On examination of their check-in-baggage, 43 gold cut-bits of 24k purity, weighing 2.493 kg and valued at Rs 1.20 crore, were found wrapped around laptop chargers with adhesive tapes.
The gold was seized and one passenger was arrested.
In another case, 992 grams of gold valued at Rs 48 lakh was seized from 12 passengers who arrived from Colombo flight on Monday.
On Tuesday, a male passenger, who arrived from Dubai by Indigo flight was intercepted. On examination of his person, three bundles wrapped with adhesive tapes were found concealed in the rectum, which resulted in recovery one gold ingot of 24K purity weighing 686 grams and valued at Rs 33.05 lakh.
The gold was seized and the passenger was arrested.
Appearing for the Punjab government, Senior Advocate P. Chidambaram argued that Majithia has gone into hiding after the rejection of his bail plea in the Punjab and Haryana High Court, and now he is appearing through counsel.
Interestingly, the move comes a week after neighbouring Madhya Pradesh permitted liquor sales at all its airports, select supermarkets in four major cities and also allowed issuing home bar licences to those earning Rs 1 crore or more annually.
The incident took place on Wednesday and the accused are said to be illicit liquor sellers in the area. It has been alleged that the woman was also gang-raped. A video of the incident showed the woman being attacked.
Both Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi and state Congress chief Navjot Singh Sidhu have urged Rahul Gandhi to announce a CM face well ahead of the polls, instead of going with the collective leadership.
The ministry of external affairs organised the summit virtually on Thursday which was attended by the heads of all five Central Asian countries -- Republic of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyz Republic, Republic of Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Republic of Uzbekistan.
Harcharan Bains, Principal Advisor to SAD President Sukhbir Singh Badal, shared documents pertaining to the reported abuse of the state intelligence wing by a private company, Movedek Politico. Bains said there are credible reports that the highest-ranked police officers of the state were asked to collaborate with the private company in intelligence gathering.
