Customs seize gold worth Rs 1.19 crore at Mumbai international airport

The Air Intelligence Unit (AIU) of Mumbai Customs on Thursday detected five cases of gold smuggling at the Chatrapati Shivaji international airport here and seized 4.78 kg of gold worth Rs 1.19 crore.

"These five cases were detected in the intervening night of September 21 and September 22," said AIU Additional Commissioner Milind Lanjewar.

In the first case, the Customs intercepted Bansi Kothari who arrived from Bangkok. Officials recovered 5 gold bars of 100 grams each valued at around Rs 12.48 laks which was concealed inside her undergarments.

In another case, four persons were arrested for smuggling three kilograms of gold worth Rs 74.89 lakhs. The official said that they initially intercepted passenger Aminahtuz Amri who had arrived from Kulalumpur and recovered two gold bars of one kilo grams each. "On interrogation, Amri showed the picture of a person on her mobile, who was waiting outside the arrival to receive her. Customs officials later nabbed one Rajanish Tripathi who had come to receive Amri," Lanjewar said. Later it was revealed by Tripathi that there was another passenger on the same flight and the officials shortly intercepted Mangana Vasu and her accomplice Mohammed Ashraf. All the four persons were arrested.

In the third case the officials' intercepted passenger Noorjahan Shaikh who had arrived from Dubai and recovered three gold bars weighing 349 grams worth Rs 8.71 lakhs which was concealed in her undergarments. The officials also said, in other two cases, the sleuths recovered gold from two passengers coming from Dubai and Muscat recovering around 1000 grams of gold from them.