Lucknow: In a sensational development, 36 gold smugglers have escaped from the custody of Customs officials at the Chaudhary Charan Singh Airport in Uttar Pradesh capital Lucknow, sources said.
Reliable sources said that following a tip-off by the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) about gold smuggling, 36 passengers were stopped for investigation after landing at the airport from Sharjahan on Monday. A huge quantity of illegal cigarettes and cash were found from them. Apart from this, the smugglers had hidden about two kilos of gold in the stomach, sources said.
It is learnt that Customs officials detained and investigated about 36 people who had deboarded the flight at 7:10 am on Monday. Customs officials had recovered illegal cigarettes worth Rs 3.5 crore and Rs 25 lakh in cash from six of these people. When all these 36 people were X-rayed, gold was found in their stomachs, said the sources.
According to Customs officials, after cash and gold were recovered from six people, thirty other people were being taken for X-ray for examination when one of the passengers fell ill. “All the smugglers started asking the customs officials to get him treated. But all the 36 smugglers escaped by dodging the Customs and CISF,” an official said.
According to ADCP South Shashank Singh, on Tuesday night the Customs officers had called the Inspector of Sarojini Nagar police station to the airport where the team was informed that the gold smugglers caught on Monday morning had escaped from custody.
“The inspector had said that a case would be registered immediately, but no complaint was given by the customs officials. Today the customs officers have filed a complaint. This matter is being investigated by registering an FIR,” he said.
According to the ADCP, all the absconding smugglers were residents of Rampur Tanda.
