GOA: Repeated individual gold busts at Dabolim airport notwithstanding, it has, for the first time, identified 10 alleged members of an organized gang that includes an Air India (AI) ramp supervisor hired on contract basis, an immigration officer and two senior staffers of a travel agency.
Customs officials suspect this gang to have smuggled 225 kg of gold, valued at Rs 58 crore, during 40-odd trips to the state last year.
A customs official said show-cause notices were issued to the 10 earlier this year, and while eight are presently untraceable, Imtiyaz Hussain, a passenger caught in the haul that triggered off the eventual gang bust, and Harpal Singh, general manager of Minar Travels Pvt Ltd, are presently lodged at the Sada sub-jail, Vasco.
Hussain, along with five other accused are residents of Bhatkal in Karnataka, while three others are from Goa, and the assistant central immigration officer is from Kozhikode in Kerala, said the official.
It all began with the seizure of 19.5 kg of gold, worth Rs 5.5 crore, on July 7, 2014, the official explained—a CISF staffer, manning the CCTV room at the airport, noticed three passengers alight from Qatar Airways flight QR-522 at 3:30am, and allegedly hand over parcels to Prakash Mantogi, AI’s ramp supervisor.
Shaikh Mohamad Javid, an assistant manager with Minar Travels, which deals with charter flights, was found allegedly misusing his all-area pass issued by the Airports Authority of India (AAI) at Dabolim, to collect parcels from passengers.
When questioned about his presence at the airport that morning, considering that the last charter flight was two months ago in May, Javid “broke into a sweat”. Gold bars worth Rs 5.5 crore were seized that day and through call records the customs traced three people waiting outside to collect the gold, said the official.
“It is usually the carriers who get caught while the others go scot-free. After analyzing call records, location records, bank statements, income tax returns and assets acquired, we tracked down everyone from the carriers to the helpers and receivers and, most importantly, the mastermind of this organized gold smuggling racket,” additional commissioner of customs S K Sinha told TOI.
In March this year, detention orders were issued under the Conservation of Foreign Exchange and Prevention of Smuggling Activities Act (Cofeposa) 1974, by the joint secretary (Cofeposa), government of India, to 10 people on the same day.
The central advisory board of Cofeposa, consisting of three high court judges, visited Goa for the first time earlier this month to hear Hussain’s plea and will pass an order soon deciding whether to continue his detention or not, said the official, adding that Singh has approached the Kerala high court where his case will be argued on October 14.
“This is one of the rare occasions that a case in Goa has reached the stage of the central advisory board. In the past our cases before the state would get dismissed by the high court on technical grounds,” the official said.
