NEW DELHI: The air intelligence unit of commissionerate of customs at the Dabolim airport on Thursday late night arrested four air passengers from Tamil Nadu including two women and seized gold from them weighing 4 kg and worth over Rs 1 crore in the market.
As per information available from additional commissioner of customs S K Sinha, the customs sleuths at the airport intercepted the four passengers who had arrived in Goa from Kuala Lumpur by Air Asia’s flight AK 96 around 9.30 pm on Thursday and seized the smuggled gold.
The customs sleuths said that 24 pieces of gold were seized. They said that the gold pieces were concealed in hollow pipes of baggage trolleys used by the passengers. According to the customs sleuths, the passengers, after landing at the Dabolim airport, used four baggage trolleys and concealed the gold pieces into the hollow pipes located above the rear wheels of the trolleys. They covered the pipes with a cloth to prevent the gold pieces from falling out.
The arrested air passengers are Muruka Chivagnanam, aged 46, a native of Thiruvarur, Balaji Panneerselvam (33) from Chennai, Lakshmi Prabakaran (39), native of Kunrathur, and Arulmani David (37) from Salem.
A female preventive officer Winnie Azavedo Souza later conducted a personal search of the two accused women passengers and was successful in recovering a necklace and a bangle from the baggage of Arulmani and four semi-hemispherical gold lumps from the baggage of Lakshmi.
Speaking to the media, Sinha said, “This is a maiden seizure from Air Asia flight at the Dabolim airport wherein the accused adopted a unique modus operandi. The gold could be detected due to the alert and shrewd officers. The personal search of the lady passengers by the preventive officer resulted in further recovery of gold jewellery and some lumps of gold.”
The total value of the seized gold which consists of 24 pieces, 4 semi-hemispherical gold lumps, a necklace and a bangle is over Rs 1 crore.
“The recovered gold has been seized under Section 110 of the Customs Act, 1962, on the reasonable belief that the same was smuggled and is liable for confiscation under Section 111 of the Customs Act,” said Sinha.
The entire seizure proceedings were carried out by assistant commissioner of customs (Dabolim airport) Francis Rodrigues under the guidance of additional commissioner Sinha and under the overall supervision of commissioner of customs and central excise and service tax, Goa, K Anpazhakan.
