Mumbai airport eatery staffer tries to smuggle out Rs 1.2 crore gold dust, held

Mumbai: Customs officials on Sunday arrested a man employed at an eatery at Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport after recovering four capsules containing gold dust worth Rs 1.2 crore concealed in a sock in his trouser pocket .Customs officials said that Ashish Ravindra Yadav (25) was intercepted during profiling of airport staffers at the exit gate located at Level P-10 of the airport. During his personal search, officials recovered a white sock containing four brown oval-shaped capsules suspected to contain gold dust. Authorities said the seized gold dust in wax form weighed around 1,470gm.Yadav allegedly admitted to carrying and handling the contraband on behalf of another person in exchange for Rs 5,000. He told investigators that the gold belonged to a transit passenger.Recently, the Centre increased import duty on gold to 15%, as a result the price of the yellow metal has shot up, leading to fears of increased smuggling activity at the city airport.