PANAJI: The Indian Customs officials have seized 12 bars of gold, weighing almost two kilograms from a passenger who had artfully concealed his smuggled treasure inside an LED television.
The man, identified as Mohammed Mubuen Jakaku from Bhatkal in Karnataka, was apprehended at the Dabolim airport after he alighted from an Air Arabia flight from Sharjah to Goa.
The seized gold is valued at Rs6,093,900 as per India’s gold prices. The international market value for the same has been estimated as 52,68,726, translating into a cool Rs0.8m profit for the smuggler.
“Jakaku had cut two one-kilo gold bars into six small pieces, to fit into hollow rectangular tubes. The tubes were then attached to the inside of the wall mount bracket that was part of a new LED television set. It was disguised extremely well; the tubes appeared to be part of the wall bracket,” said V P C Rao, commissioner of Customs and Excise at Goa. The man had gone to Sharjah six months ago, and did not seem like a professional courier, said Rao. “We are yet to ascertain whether the gold belonged to him, or if he was delivering it for someone else,” he said.
