Gold worth Rs 53 lakh seized at Chennai airport

CHENNAI: Customs officials at Chennai

airport

seized 1.8 kg gold, worth Rs 53 lakh, in three different cases on Friday and Saturday. In one of the cases, the

gold

was concealed as a foil inside a writing slate, drawing board and crayon box. Two people have been arrested.

On Saturday morning, customs officials intercepted Sirajudheen Neerkatti Poyil who arrived from Doha by the Qatar Airways flight no QR 528. When his check-in baggage was examined, two children’s slates, a drawing board and a crayon box were found to be very heavy. When they were opened, gold foils covered with gum and carbon paper were recovered.

A government-approved appraiser extracted gold from the foils by heating it in a hot gas flame. This yielded 795gm of 24 karat purity which is valued at Rs 22.8 lakh. The passenger was arrested.

The other two cases were on Friday evening. In one case, customs officials stopped Mohamed Thasleem, 32, a Sri Lankan native, who arrived from Colombo by Air India AI 274. Two gold cut bits and two gold rings weighing 100gm each of 24 karat purity worth Rs 2.8 lakh was recovered from his rectum.

In the second case on Friday, Suresh Rajaram, who arrived from Singapore on the Scoot airlines flight TR 578, was intercepted. When he was searched, nine gold bars weighing 947gm of 24 karat purity worth Rs 27.9 lakh were found concealed inside his inner garments. He was arrested as the value of gold seized was more than Rs 20 lakh.


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