Gold is highly durable, but keep it inside a warehouse of the Delhi airport's customs department long enough and it may turn into brass.
While inspecting a seizure of precious jewellery from a case dating back to 1989, officials found this month that the gold items had been replaced with a cheap metal slab.
The warehouse superintendent reported the matter to the customs commissioner who ordered a probe and an FIR was registered on June 15 in a case where the department's own employees are suspects as no outsider is allowed in the store rooms.
Sources say the findings may just be scratching the surface and massive plunder may have taken place at the depot where gold worth Rs 300-400 crore is stashed.
"There is no way to ascertain how much of it has been stolen and secretly replaced with fakes or other material that resemble gold," said an official.
Analysts say gold seizures have gone up in India since the government hiked import duty from 2 per cent to 10 per cent three years ago, making smuggling more profitable despite the risks of getting caught.
This is not the first case of gold theft from a customs warehouse. In 2014 and 2015, two cases were registered with Delhi Police but the investigation was inconclusive.
According to an initial probe, around 900 g of gold- worth close to Rs 27 lakh- is missing from the total seizure of 1.6 kg.
18/06/16 Ankur Sharma/India Today
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While inspecting a seizure of precious jewellery from a case dating back to 1989, officials found this month that the gold items had been replaced with a cheap metal slab.
The warehouse superintendent reported the matter to the customs commissioner who ordered a probe and an FIR was registered on June 15 in a case where the department's own employees are suspects as no outsider is allowed in the store rooms.
Sources say the findings may just be scratching the surface and massive plunder may have taken place at the depot where gold worth Rs 300-400 crore is stashed.
"There is no way to ascertain how much of it has been stolen and secretly replaced with fakes or other material that resemble gold," said an official.
Analysts say gold seizures have gone up in India since the government hiked import duty from 2 per cent to 10 per cent three years ago, making smuggling more profitable despite the risks of getting caught.
This is not the first case of gold theft from a customs warehouse. In 2014 and 2015, two cases were registered with Delhi Police but the investigation was inconclusive.
According to an initial probe, around 900 g of gold- worth close to Rs 27 lakh- is missing from the total seizure of 1.6 kg.
18/06/16 Ankur Sharma/India Today
