Gold bars worth Rs29 lakh stuffed inside flier’s seat seized at Mumbai airport | Mumbai news - Hindustan Times
close_game
close_game

Gold bars worth Rs29 lakh stuffed inside flier’s seat seized at Mumbai airport

Hindustan Times | By, Mumbai
May 01, 2018 12:00 AM IST

Custom officials said the spate of such cases indicates that smugglers are concealing gold in places such as seats and toilets that are to be retrieved later.

In the third such case in a fortnight, unclaimed gold bars worth 29 lakh were recovered on Monday, from a passenger’s seat in an aircraft which landed in the city from Dubai.

The gold bars retrieved on Monday at Mumbai airport.(HT)
The gold bars retrieved on Monday at Mumbai airport.(HT)

Custom officials said the spate of such cases indicates that smugglers are concealing gold in places such as seats and toilets that are to be retrieved later.

Hindustan Times - your fastest source for breaking news! Read now.

“Officers recovered nine gold bars of foreign marking, collectively weighing 1,049 grams,” said V. Rama Mathew, commissioner of Customs, Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport (CSIA).

The unclaimed gold bars were wrapped in cream coloured adhesive tapes and were concealed below the cushion of one passenger’s seat.

In all the recent cases, the gold has been wrapped in adhesive tapes. “We suspect that multiple gangs are operating using the same modus operandi,” said a senior officer.

Sources stated that a number of persons are involved in these rackets – from the flier who conceals the gold to the one who retrieves it. Authorities are investigating if any staffer was involved, whose job may have been to retrieve the gold.

In the past couple of years, authorities have found unclaimed gold in cotton bags kept inside the rear toilets of aircraft, life jacket pouches, tissue paper holders in aircraft toilets, below aircraft seats, immigration counter toilets, oxygen mask cavity of rear toilets in aircraft, among other locations.

The Customs have arrested loaders, cleaners, trolley-handlers and staffers of other units for their involvement in these crimes. Sources said passes given to staffers permit them to move around freely within the airport, and they do not need to go through a Customs checkpoint. This allows them to smuggle gold out of the airport through various ways, said sources.

There have been instances of fliers sticking bars of gold beneath their seats, which were later retrieved by a cleaner who put them in a dustbin. Once the bin was outside the airport premises, the gold bar was retrieved, sources said.

SHARE THIS ARTICLE ON
Share this article
  • ABOUT THE AUTHOR
    author-default-90x90

    Pratik Salunke is a principal correspondent of Hindustan Times, Mumbai. He has spent a past decade covering crime and transport in cities of Mumbai and Pune. He has been covering terrorism, financial frauds and crime stories.

SHARE
Story Saved
Live Score
OPEN APP
Saved Articles
Following
My Reads
Sign out
New Delhi 0C
Thursday, March 28, 2024
Start 14 Days Free Trial Subscribe Now
Follow Us On