Ahmedabad: A team of the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) busted a gold smuggling racket on Wednesday when it arrested seven men, six of whom are aviation staff, carrying three kilograms of gold at Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel International airport. They were produced before the metropolitan magistrate's court later in the evening.
On the basis of intelligence inputs, the DRI had been keeping a watch on the airport for the past one month. In the intervening night of July 23 and 24, a DRI team arrested one Mayur Puchariya, who had come from Sharjah by an Air Arabia flight, along with Manvendra Singh and Jay Vaidya (both officials of Air Arabia) and Feroz Sheikh, Arpit Rawal, Dhawal Joshi and Sameer Mansuri (all Cambata Aviation officials). A total of three kg of gold jewelry and $10,000 were recovered from the accused.
This is the first case of gold smuggling at the city airport in which airline officials were also involved. Cambata Aviation manages the ground-handling work for Air Arabia at Ahmedabad airport. Airline officials aren't checked by customs while leaving or entering the airport. This security loophole was used by the accused to smuggle gold. The accused airline officials would ask the passenger carrying gold to stay back in the plane when others left.
25/07/13 eTurboNews
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On the basis of intelligence inputs, the DRI had been keeping a watch on the airport for the past one month. In the intervening night of July 23 and 24, a DRI team arrested one Mayur Puchariya, who had come from Sharjah by an Air Arabia flight, along with Manvendra Singh and Jay Vaidya (both officials of Air Arabia) and Feroz Sheikh, Arpit Rawal, Dhawal Joshi and Sameer Mansuri (all Cambata Aviation officials). A total of three kg of gold jewelry and $10,000 were recovered from the accused.
This is the first case of gold smuggling at the city airport in which airline officials were also involved. Cambata Aviation manages the ground-handling work for Air Arabia at Ahmedabad airport. Airline officials aren't checked by customs while leaving or entering the airport. This security loophole was used by the accused to smuggle gold. The accused airline officials would ask the passenger carrying gold to stay back in the plane when others left.
25/07/13 eTurboNews
