Gold worth Rs 1.34 crore seized, 3 held

Over four kg gold worth more than Rs 1.34 crore was seized Wednesday near the international airport here and three people, includinganAir India security employee, arrested for allegedly smuggling it, officials said Wednesday.

Directorate of Revenue Intelligence officials intercepted a person, who was travelling in a four-wheeler van of Air India SATS, in the early hours Tuesday, a release from theDRI's (Hyderabad Zonal Unit) said here.

On examination, two packages were found in the vehicle that contained 36 foreign marked gold bars weighing 4,194 grams, it said.

Inquiries revealed that the person, an AI assistant security officer, had retrieved the foreign marked gold from Air India Flight AI 952, which had arrived from Dubai, the release said.

The gold was to be handed over to some people waiting at a petrol station on the Hyderabad-Srisailam Highway.

The officer admitted that he was involved in similar smuggling of gold on one previous occasion, the release said.

Further follow up searches resulted in recovery of Rs 3.60 lakh which were sale proceeds of smuggled gold, it said.

The gold bars, Rs 3.60 lakh and the van used for concealing the gold bars were seized.

Besides the the AI assistant security officer, two persons who came to receive the smuggled gold were arrested, it added.