Gold worth Rs 38.4 lakh seized from air passengers

The customs officials of the Chennai airport have reported several incidents of gold seizing here in the past few days, the first one on Friday. A total of 1.17 kg gold worth 38.4 lakh has been seized till now.

Chennai: Nearly 1.17 kg of gold worth Rs 38.4 lakh smuggled into the country by air passengers in multiple cases has been seized, Customs officials said on Friday.
In the first incident on Friday, 313 gm of the precious metal valued at Rs 10.29 lakh was recovered from a 23-year-old passenger who arrived here from Kuala Lumpur.

He had concealed the gold in his rectum, an official press release said. In the second incident on May 9, two passengers who arrived from Kuala Lumpur were checked and three cylindrical gold rods were found concealed in their rectums. The gold weighed 618 gm worth Rs 20.30 lakh, the release said.

Two women passengers, hailing from Tiruchirappalli and arriving here from Colombo, were intercepted on suspicion and were found to be carrying 238 gm valued at Rs 7.81 lakh in their rectum, it said. Totally, 1.17 gm of gold worth Rs 38.4 lakh was seized under the provisions of Customs Act, 1962 and further investigation was on, it added.