Mumbai: Customs seizes gold hidden inside pressure cooker, 2 arrested at airport
Customs officials recovered over 1 kg of gold valued at Rs 31.52 lakh.
In Short
- A female passenger and a male accomplice were arrested for smuggling gold worth Rs 31.52 lakh.
- The gold was hidden inside a pressure cooker.
- The woman is a resident of Mumbai. Her accomplice is from Kerala.
Custom officials at the Mumbai Airport arrested a female passenger and an accomplice for an alleged attempt to smuggle of gold worth Rs 31.52 lakh.
On Monday morning, Banu Abdul Hai Shaikh, resident of Wadala, Mumbai, flew ino the into the city from Dubai on a Fly Dubai Airways flight and cleared herself through the green channel. However, the Air Intelligence Unit (AIU) officers of the customs department intercepted her, based on profiling.
The officers then examined the pressure cooker, which was brought in as part of her checked-in-baggage. This resulted in the recovery of two pieces of circular white plates made of gold weighing 966 gms each. The plates were concealed under the pressure pan of the cooker.
"She was also found wearing a pair of payals made of gold weighing 73 gms. Thus, total gold recovered was weighed at 1039 grams valued at Rs. 31,52,326 which were seized under the provisions of the Customs Act, 1962", the official said.
Officials also arrested an accomplice - Faheem MK, a reident of Kerala who was supposed to collect the gold from outside airport.
Also read: 3 nabbed smuggling gold in their rectum at Mumbai airport