Three held for smuggling gold worth Rs 50 lakh at airport

Three persons, including an Afghan national, have been arrested for allegedly trying to smuggle into the country gold bars valuing over Rs 50 lakh at international airport in two separate incidents.
Acting on intelligence, a passenger was intercepted by customs officials after his arrival from Dubai here on Monday. He has handed over gold bar weighing a kilogram to an employee working as customer service agent for a firm engaged in ground handling work at the airport, a customs official said.
On personal search of the customer service agent, the gold bar weighing a kilogram and valuing about Rs 24.79 lakh was recovered. Both the persons in this case were arrested, he said.

In another case on the same day, customs officials had intercepted an Afghan national. "On detailed examination of his baggage and personal search resulted into recovery of 12 pieces of gold weighing 1.1 kgs and valuing about Rs 28.26 lakh," the official said.
The passenger was arrested. The total value of the gold seized in the two cases is Rs 53.05 lakh.