Smuggled Gold Worth Rs 1.82 Cr Seized From NRIs At Bhubaneswar Airport

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Bhubaneswar: Two days after smuggled gold worth Rs 9 lakh was seized from a passenger at the Biju Patnaik International Airport here, Revenue Intelligence Directorate on Monday again recovered gold weighing more than 5 kg from three Non-Resident Indians (NRIs).

The trio, who had arrived in an AirAsia AK31 flight from Kuala Lumpur, has been detained for interrogation. They were allegedly carrying the smuggled gold inside their footwear.

The market value of the seized gold has been estimated to be around Rs 1.82 crore, sources said.

On April 22, a Non-Resident Indian (NRI) woman was detained by customs personnel for allegedly carrying illegal gold worth Rs 17 lakh. The woman, who had arrived in the city airport from Bangkok, was travelling on a Thai passport. Silver-coated gold chains and bangles were also recovered from her possession.

On April 9, the airport officials had seized 700 grams of gold valued at Rs 22 lakh while being smuggled inside a mixer grinder. Similarly, gold weighing 180 gram amounting to Rs 5.66 lakh was seized on April 1.

Earlier, gold bars and rings worth over Rs 12 lakh were seized from two persons at the airport on March 28. During search of their body and personal baggage, the officials had found three gold bars which were concealed in their rectum and 143 gold rings inside the buttons of shirts and jeans pants. During examination, the seized ornaments were found to be of foreign origin smuggled into India.