Pune: Customs authorities arrested a man and a woman at the airport here on Monday morning with gold worth Rs 46 lakh they had smuggled in from Dubai by adopting unique ways.
The Customs officials found gold in a semi-solid jelly-like form on the woman, originally from Dongri in Mumbai, worth Rs 42.50 lakh. On the other hand, the man had tried to sneak into the country with gold in the form of a bright wrapper with chocolates inside. Both of them reached Pune from Dubai on SpiceJet flight SG-52 around 4am.
The Customs officials admitted that they were flummoxed by the way the woman, Shaikh Haseena, had brought in the gold. “The modus operandi was new. The gold was first powdered. It was then mixed with powder of iron and potassium. A solvent was added to the mixture to give it a semi-solid jelly-like form. This was packed in three plastic pouches and the woman had concealed them on her body,” a Customs official told TOI.
“On finding her movement suspicious, we frisked her and found the pouches. The official goldsmith was summoned and he confirmed that the seized substance contained gold. We are yet to ascertain the properties of the solvent,” he said.
Abdunisar Kasaragod Baduvan Kunhi, whose passport identifies him as a resident of Kerala, reached Pune in the same flight. “As we checked his luggage and frisked him, we found some chocolates inside wrappers made of gold. We recovered 116 gram of 24 carat gold on him. Its value will be around Rs 3.63 lakh,” the official said.
During questioning, the official said, both the flyers admitted that they carried gold by concealing them. They were arrested and the gold was confiscated under section 108 of the Customs Act, 1962.
10/04/18 Joy Sengupta/Times of India
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The Customs officials found gold in a semi-solid jelly-like form on the woman, originally from Dongri in Mumbai, worth Rs 42.50 lakh. On the other hand, the man had tried to sneak into the country with gold in the form of a bright wrapper with chocolates inside. Both of them reached Pune from Dubai on SpiceJet flight SG-52 around 4am.
The Customs officials admitted that they were flummoxed by the way the woman, Shaikh Haseena, had brought in the gold. “The modus operandi was new. The gold was first powdered. It was then mixed with powder of iron and potassium. A solvent was added to the mixture to give it a semi-solid jelly-like form. This was packed in three plastic pouches and the woman had concealed them on her body,” a Customs official told TOI.
“On finding her movement suspicious, we frisked her and found the pouches. The official goldsmith was summoned and he confirmed that the seized substance contained gold. We are yet to ascertain the properties of the solvent,” he said.
Abdunisar Kasaragod Baduvan Kunhi, whose passport identifies him as a resident of Kerala, reached Pune in the same flight. “As we checked his luggage and frisked him, we found some chocolates inside wrappers made of gold. We recovered 116 gram of 24 carat gold on him. Its value will be around Rs 3.63 lakh,” the official said.
During questioning, the official said, both the flyers admitted that they carried gold by concealing them. They were arrested and the gold was confiscated under section 108 of the Customs Act, 1962.
10/04/18 Joy Sengupta/Times of India
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