Gold worth Rs 4.8 crore seized at Bengaluru airport; 5 held

BENGALURU: Kempegowda International Airport (KIA) saw the seizure of smuggled gold worth Rs 4.8 crore from international passengers in 15 days. Five smugglers, including three women, have been arrested since December 5.

The Bengaluru unit of directorate of revenue intelligence carried out combing of suspicious passengers, mainly coming from the Gulf. On Tuesday, sleuths intercepted a 30-year-old who had landed from Dubai on an Emirates airlines flight. While frisking the man from Kolkata, sleuths found him wearing a specially tailored underwear with gold chains weighing 1.5kg and worth Rs 91 lakh.

On the night of December 11, a 33-year-old woman with an Indonesian passport was intercepted after she disembarked from an IndiGo airlines flight. The suspect, who was on a tourist visa to India, had flown from Singapore with gold bars weighing 1.5kg fitted to her underpants.

On the same night, DRI sleuths arrested a 35-year-old man from Mumbai who had landed from Muscat on an Oman Air flight, carrying 1.6kg worth of gold paste hidden in his undergarments. The paste, worth Rs 85 lakh, was seized from the suspect who claimed it was for his personal use.

On December 5, two Tamil Nadu women in their mid-30s landed from Bangkok on a Thai Airways flight wearing shoes specially fitted with gold pieces. The smugglers were intercepted after they cleared immigration procedures, and gold pieces weighing 3.4kg and worth Rs 2.2 crore were unearthed.