NEW DELHI: Customs officials have arrested an Italian and an Indian for allegedly trying to smuggle in gold worth Rs 80 lakh at IGI Airport here the other day. This has taken the total amount of gold seized in a week from the airport to more than 10kg.
Italian passenger Lupoli Alessandro was intercepted at the Green channel when he landed at the Delhi airport from Milan by an Air India flight around 10.15am.
“He was stopped and was asked to cooperate for baggage search. On thoroughly scanning the baggage, 2.98kg of gold was found concealed in the battery of electric motors. Value of the recovered gold is around Rs 80 lakh. The gold was seized and the passenger was further interrogated to trace the receiver of the product. He revealed that he was told to deliver the gold to a man at the airport after his exit. On his tip-off, the second accused identified as Vimal Kumar was also nabbed,” said a Customs official.
This is the third gold smuggling case busted at the airport this month.
On September 9, three Afghani nationals were arrested for smuggling in more than 8kg of gold worth Rs 2 crore. “Identified as Nawida Wahidi and Torpikai, the two women were arrested for hiding the gold in a waist belt. As revealed by them during interrogation, one Afghani man, Said Khalid, who was to receive this illegal gold, was also arrested from the airport,” the official said.
A couple was also arrested on September 5 for trying to get away with illegal gold from the airport by hiding it in their rectums. The duo was identified as Manmohan Kaur and Gurbachan Singh Bakshi and 1.74kg of gold was seized from them. Both had arrived from Dubai by a Jet Airways flight.
