61kg Gold Worth Rs 31 Crore Seized At Mumbai Airport

Mumbai: Customs officials arrested seven passengers in two separate cases and seized 61-kilogram gold collectively worth Rs 32 crore at the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International (CSMI) Airport in Mumbai.

In a presser on Sunday, the officials informed that this has been the highest seizure in a single day reported in the history of Mumbai Airport Customs.

Among the seven arrested, five are men, and two are women.

In the first case, four male passengers of Indian nationality who landed from Tanzania were intercepted and inspected.

“They were found carrying the smuggled gold in the form of one-kilogram bars ingeniously concealed in the specially designed waist belts with multiple pockets wrapped around their torso. A total of 53 kg gold valued at Rs 28.17 crore was seized from the four passengers,” said an official.

The specially designed belts with UAE-made gold bars concealed inside were allegedly handed over to the passengers by a person of Sudanese nationality at Doha airport during the transit time. The four accused Indian passengers arrived from Doha on a Qatar Airways flight.

During the interrogation, all four passengers confessed that they were handed over the gold by an unknown Sudanese national who had not travelled with them on the flight. All four passengers have been arrested and remanded in 14 days’ judicial custody by a magistrate court.

In the second case, the officials seized eight-kilogram gold valued at Rs 3.88 crore from three passengers (one male and two females) who arrived from Dubai on a Vistara flight.

A customs official said, “We found gold dust in the wax form which was concealed in the waistline of the jeans pants worn by the passengers. One of the accused women is in her late sixties and was in a wheelchair. All three passengers have been arrested and remanded in judicial custody.”