Pune: The customs officials at Pune airport on Thursday caught a 55-year -old man attempting to smuggle 24-carat gold pieces in his luggage.
This was the first case of gold smuggling to come to light at the airport this year.
The man, a resident of Uttar Pradesh, arrived from Dubai on a special Air India repatriation flight under the Vande Bharat Mission, officials said.
A senior customs official, refusing to divulge the man’s identity, said the gold pieces were concealed in a clever manner in his luggage. “Two pieces were hidden inside two erasers — a cavity was made in each, the piece was inserted and the opening was covered with a blue carbon strip. One gold piece was hidden inside a neatly packed chocolate bar. The man wore a gold road coated in silver,” the official said,
The official added that one gold piece was concealed in the handle of the man’s trolley bag. “The other gold pieces were hidden in his sling bag,’ the official said.
The gold weighed 151.8 grams and was valued at Rs7.9 lakh. “Since the quantity of the gold recovered was not huge, we haven’t arrested the man. That said, our investigation is on and he will be summoned at a later stage for questioning,” the official said, adding that the sophisticated manner in which the gold pieces were hidden raised many questions.
31/10/20 Joy Sengupta/Times of India
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