In the past few months, several passengers at the RGIA have been caught smuggling gold worth lakhs and crores of rupees.
Published May 14, 2023 | 9:02 PM ⚊ Updated May 14, 2023 | 9:02 PM
The gold weighed over 1.2 kg and is said to be worth ₹67.96 lakh was tried to be smuggled from Saudi Arabia. (Twitter)
Customs Department officials on Sunday, 14 May, seized smuggled gold bars hidden inside the battery of an emergency light from a passenger at Hyderabad’s Rajiv Gandhi International Airport (RGIA).
The gold weighed over 1.2 kg and was said to be worth ₹67.96 lakh. It was being smuggled from Saudi Arabia.
This was one of the several instances in the past few months where passengers were caught smuggling huge quantities of gold worth lakhs and crores of rupees at the airport.
The accused is a male passenger who arrived in Hyderabad on a flight from Saudi Arabia’s capital Riyadh via Bahrain.
He was intercepted by the Customs Air Intelligence team of Hyderabad Customs, as per reports.
The Customs officials said they checked the baggage of the passenger thoroughly and found 14 gold bars of 24-karat (kt) purity.
The gold bars were concealed inside the battery of an emergency light that was brought by the passenger in his luggage, said the officials.
They arrested the passenger under the Indian Customs Act of 1962, which deals with the payment of customs duty on imported and exported goods.
As recent as 11 May, the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) sleuths seized 2 kg of gold from a smuggler at RGIA.
The passenger was found in possession of six capsules containing gold paste. With a purity of 99.5 percent, it was valued at ₹1.3 crore by Customs officials.
On 30 March, customs officials reportedly arrested a passenger who arrived by a flight from Dubai via Muscat.
He had concealed two gold rods weighing around 224 grams worth ₹13.72 lakh in the handle of a trolley bag.
On 21 April, officials seized 470 grams of gold worth ₹28.5 lakh from two passengers at the RGIA in separate instances.
The first passenger arrived from Dubai on a flight in the morning and 230 grams of gold wristbands, valued at ₹13.5 lakh.
In the second case, a passenger coming from Jeddah in Saudi Arabia was caught smuggling a gold biscuit weighing 250 grams worth ₹15 lakh.
