Customs seizes gold worth over Rs 2 crore at Mumbai airport

Customs officials have seized gold worth over Rs 2 crore at the international airport here in the last two days and arrested four persons, including two Sudanese women.

Acting on specific inputs, the Air Intelligence Unit (AIU) of the Customs intercepted an Indian passenger Hafiz Abdurrub upon his arrived from Dubai by a spicejet flight today, the Customs said in a release.

The officials recovered crude gold bars weighing 1.936 kg which were concealed in his undergarments. During his interrogation, Abdurrub spilled beans on his accomplice Sheq Irfan.

The AIU sleuths found three gold bars weighing 1 kg each from the pocket of Irfan's trousers, it said.

The collective value of seized gold from the two passengers was Rs 1,37,95,455, it said.

Similarly, search of two Sudanese women passengers resulted in the recovery of 12 gold bars, concealed in their private parts yesterday.

The women had arrived from Sharjah by an Air Arabia flight.

The seized gold bars, collectively weighing 1.39 Kg, are worth Rs 39,29,665.

The gold bars were being smuggled into India without payment of proper Customs duty and in contravention of the provisions of Customs Act, it said.

All the passengers have been arrested.

In another incident, the AIU recovered eight gold bars collectively weighing 932 grams and valued at Rs 26,17,904 from an Indigo Airways flight, the release said.

The gold bars were hidden in a hollow pipe placed under one of the passengers seat on the flight, which arrived from Dubai.