Gold worth Rs 1.77 cr seized from seven passengers

: Gold worth Rs 1.77 crore has been recovered from seven passengers over the past 24 hours at the international airport here, Customs officials said on Tuesday.

In the first incident, the air intelligence wing of the customs seized six gold chains and a bracelet, totally worth Rs 24.3 lakh from the luggage of two Sri Lankan woman passengers who arrived from Colombo.

On Monday, the officials, acting on a tip off, intercepted a passenger from Karnataka on his arrival from New Delhi and recovered gold bars with foreign markings worth Rs 92.33 lakh from his luggage, the department said in a release.

Initial investigations revealed that the yellow metal was handed over to him from an unkown person in New Delhi and he was asked to deliver it to another person at city airport.

The passenger was arrested, the said.

In the third incident on Monday, the officials recovered gold from four passengers who arrived here from Sharjah.

The gold, concealed in their rectum, was worth Rs 60.27 lakh, the release said.