BANGALORE: Officials of the Customs and Air Intelligence nabbed a man from Mysore and recovered 5.2 kg of gold granules worth Rs. 1.37 crore concealed inside the compressor of a split air conditioner on Sunday.
The accused, who was found travelling frequently abroad, was detained on suspicion soon after he landed at the BIAL from Kuala Lumpur.
He claimed that he was a businessman travelling abroad to promote his business, but the officials began frisking his belongings and found an AC. They began to dismantle the AC and break open the compressor while Farooq was constantly complaining that they are destroying the newly purchased equipment.
After a few minutes, the gold granules started pouring out. A detailed inquiry led Farooq, the accused, to confess that he was part of an international gold smuggling racket and acting as courier for the local contacts. Farooq said that he was given to and fro tickets to travel to various countries with an assignment to carry gold concealed in various packages in the form of products.
He was supposed to handover the AC to a group of people who had come to receive him. But as soon as they got a hint of his arrest, they escaped, a senior police officer said here the other day.
This is the third such haul by the Customs team this month. On Wednesday the officials recovered 1.5 kg of gold abandoned at one of the toilets at the arrival hall. Earlier the officials recovered 800 grams of gold bars concealed at the bottom of one of the passenger seats. The total value of both the seizures was estimated to be around Rs. 61.5 lakh, according to the officials. Investigations are on to track down the passengers who were trying to smuggle the gold.
“Going by the way the gold was left at the bottom of the passenger’s seat and at the washroom, we suspect the involvement of insiders,” a senior officer who is supervising the investigation said.
