Jet Airways employee held with gold worth Rs 1.2 crore at Mumbai airport

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Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) officials apprenhended 29-year-old Nadeem Ansari, a senior service supervisor with Jet Airways, for attempting to smuggle gold weighing 4kg worth Rs 1.2 crore. He was nabbed on Tuesday night at the Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport (CIAL).

According to The Times of India, Ansari was caught in possession of gold hidden in five pouches, which was smuggled by a carrier from Dubai, and left in an airline bus. Officials learnt that the accused was promised a payment of Rs 75,000 if he could manage to sneak out of the airport with the gold.

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Ansari who was employed at Jet Airways since six years, is believed to be involved in the gold smuggling racket for at least six months. He earned a minimum of Rs 1.25 lakh as he helped smuggle about 2-3 consignments on a weekly basis.

He has been suspended for Jet Airways pending enquiry. Airport authorities are withholding the identity of the passenger, who smuggled the gold. A interesting thing to note here is that the passenger travelled business class, which would facilitat him/her to exit the aircraft first.

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Official sources say Ansari, who job involves supervising operations at passenger counters, was not on duty at the time of his arrest.

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He collected the gold after the passenger left it behind in the bus' backseat. The vehicle ferries passengers from the airline to the terminal. The passenger had left the airport by then.