Over Rs 50 lakh worth gold seized from air passengers

Gold weighing 1.7397 kg totally and valued at Rs 50.93 lakh was seized and three passengers, including a Singapore citizen, were arrested by customs officials at the airport here today for allegedly attempting to smuggle the precious metal in different forms.
While two of the passengers arrived from Singapore, the other from Dubai. All the three had been arrested and further investigations were on, a customs press release said.
Air Intelligence officials found a gold rod weighing 529.2 grams concealed inside the cartridge of a fax printer from the baggage of Mohamed Riyas from Chennai.
They also found two gold rods were bent and made into a wheel form and cleverly concealed inside the two wheels of a trolley bag of Jamal Mohamed, a citizen of Singapore. The total weight of the two gold rods is 392.9 gm.

Naushad, a native of Kasargod, was caught while attempting to smuggle gold by concealing two gold rods and a gold plate in his checked-in-baggage.
The two gold rods, coated with rhodium, weighing 701 gm were kept concealed underneath the aluminium beading of a laptop bag.
He also concealed a gold sheet weighing 116.6 gm inside a metallic measuring tape. The total quantity seized from him was 817.6 gm, the release said.