Mumbai Crime: Rs 1.04 crore smuggled gold found in airport toilet

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The Air Intelligence Unit (AIU) of Mumbai Airport Customs recovered five packets of gold worth Rs 1.04 crore from a toilet bin in the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport, an official said on Wednesday.

Mumbai Airport Customs Commissioner V. Rama Mathew said that AIU officials intercepted a passenger, M. Kunhi Koppa Irshad, who arrived from Dubai by a Jet Airways flight 9W-537 early on Wednesday.

Based on a tip-off, he was followed from the aircraft to a toilet in the immigration hall where they saw him dropping five packets containing 32 gold bars totally weighing 3.7 kg in a garbage bin. He was caught just before he left the premises.

Mathew said that during the AIU interrogation, the passenger admitted that he was handed over the packets containing the gold bars from an acquaintance in Dubai.

He was instructed to drop the smuggled gold bars packets in the garbage bin in the toilet in return for monetary benefits, said the officer.

The contraband gold has been confiscated while Irshad has been arrested.

In another case last month, an Afghan man has been arrested by customs officials at Delhi airport for allegedly trying to smuggle into the country gold worth about Rs 22 lakh.

The accused, aged 26, was intercepted on his arrival from Kandahar (Afghanistan) on Thursday, according to a statement issued by the customs on Saturday.

A detailed personal search of the passenger resulted in a recovery of three gold chains, total weighing 737 grams, it said.

The gold chains, valued at Rs 21.87 lakh, has been seized and the passenger arrested, the statement said.

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