Man caught with 10L forex, 63L diamonds & rubies at KIA

Bengaluru: With smugglers adopting new methods to hide precious goods during international air travel, a Mumbai man attempting to smuggle diamonds and rubies worth Rs 63 lakh and assorted foreign currencies costing Rs 10 lakh out of the country was caught at Kempegowda International Airport (KIA) on Feb 23.The man was travelling from Bengaluru to Bangkok and carrying 2348 carats of lab-grown diamonds and rubies concealed in his hand baggage. He was intercepted by the Bengauru team of Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI), according to sources. “He was stopped after he had completed immigration and was boarding the flight. The man was stopped and his hand baggage was searched, resulting in the recovery of various varieties of lab-grown diamonds and rubies worth Rs 63 lakh and assorted foreign currency,” the sleuths said.The passenger has been arrested and remanded in judicial custody, and an investigation is under way to determine if he is part of any smuggling racket. Initial interrogation revealed that he sourced the diamonds and rubies from Mumbai and was planning to sell them in Bangkok.Rs 72L gold seized Over the past weekend, customs officials at KIA seized gold worth over Rs 72 lakh in two different instances. On Friday, two passengers — one domestic and one international — attempted to smuggle 289 grams of foreign origin gold by exchanging luggage from the international arrivals area to domestic, in order to evade customs. The seizure was worth over Rs 18 lakh. On Saturday, three passengers were caught carrying foreign-origin gold in crude form, weighing 879 grams. The gold was valued at Rs 54 lakh.

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