Precious items worth Rs 91L seized at Mumbai airport; 1 held

Customs sleuths have detected six cases of smuggling at the international airport here since Sunday night and confiscated gold and red sanders collectively valued at about Rs 91.35 lakh besides arresting one person.
A family of four from Sri Lanka - Ahamed L Alawudeen, his wife Balkees and their daughters Sumiya Aameela - were intercepted on suspicion today when they arrived from Colombo, said a Customs officer.
The four were found wearing gold jewellery worth Rs 30.30 lakh that they had not declared. The jewellery was seized and Ahamed is being interrogated. He is likely to be placed under arrest on smuggling charges, he said.

In separate cases since last night, two Indians, who arrived here from Bangkok and Riyad, were intercepted and gold worth Rs 22.25 lakh was found with them. The duo was let off after completion of formalities.
As per Customs norms, a person is placed under arrest if the value of seized gold is over Rs 20 lakh.
A Hong Kong-bound passenger, Mohammed Imran, was today found with about 60kg of red sanders, valued at Rs 2.39 lakh, the officer said, adding he was handed over to Forest Department for further probe.

Export/import of the precious wood is banned under Indian laws.

In another case, four gold bars worth Rs 11.41 lakh were recovered from one Shaikh Masood Rehman, who arrived here from Jeddah. Rehman was later let off, he added.
Another Indian passenger Buhari Muhamed, who arrived from Dubai, was intercepted and 1kg of gold worth Rs 25 lakh was found with him. He was immediately arrested, the officer added.