Man arrested for trying to smuggle gold worth over Rs 68 lakh

An Indian passenger was arrested at the international airport here for allegedly trying to smuggle in undeclared gold worth Rs 68.41 lakh from Dubai, the twelfth such case in the last five days, a senior Customs official said today.
The smuggling came to light when Poochakkad Abdul Azeez, who arrived in the wee hours yesterday on an Air India flight from Dubai, was intercepted for the purpose of examination of his luggage, the officer said.
The passenger was found to have meticulously concealed nine gold bars collectively weighing 2799.36 grams inside the battery socket of an emergency light and batteries of torchlight, the official said.

"The value of recovered gold is estimated to be about Rs 68.41 lakh," the official said adding that Azeez was arrested for alleged violation of Customs Act.
Last Saturday and Sunday night, Customs detected 11 gold smuggling cases and recovered a total of Rs 1.37 crore worth yellow metal from various accused.