Chennai: The Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) has questioned six Air India officials after investigations linked the carrier's staff to two recent cases of smuggling gold into the country.
The first was on October 7 when 32kg of gold biscuits worth nearly Rs 9.5 crore were found in a toilet of an AI plane that arrived in Chennai from Dubai and the second on November 8 when a flight attendant was arrested with Rs 1.84 crore worth gold at Calicut airport.
Two weeks ago, DRI director general Najib Shah wrote to Air India chairman and managing director Rohit Nandan on the suspected nexus between airline staff on the Gulf sectors and smugglers.
According to officials, the agency has found evidence of the airline staff's involvement, especially those who work with ground-handling and flight engineering wings at foreign airports. "In some cases, we found that smugglers took help from airline officials in hiding the items inside the aircraft.
29/12/13 Arun Janardhanan/Times of India
To Read the News in full at Source, Click the Headline
The first was on October 7 when 32kg of gold biscuits worth nearly Rs 9.5 crore were found in a toilet of an AI plane that arrived in Chennai from Dubai and the second on November 8 when a flight attendant was arrested with Rs 1.84 crore worth gold at Calicut airport.
Two weeks ago, DRI director general Najib Shah wrote to Air India chairman and managing director Rohit Nandan on the suspected nexus between airline staff on the Gulf sectors and smugglers.
According to officials, the agency has found evidence of the airline staff's involvement, especially those who work with ground-handling and flight engineering wings at foreign airports. "In some cases, we found that smugglers took help from airline officials in hiding the items inside the aircraft.
29/12/13 Arun Janardhanan/Times of India
