Lucknow: The customs department at Chaudhary Charan Singh International Airport recovered foreign cigarettes worth Rs 16.5 lakh from three flyers who arrived at Lucknow from Bangkok on Sunday night.
As the customs duty was also not paid, the cigarettes were confiscated under the Customs Act, 1962 and the passengers were being questioned in custody.
The passengers of Air Asia's Bangkok-Lucknow flight (FD 146) were scanned after landing during which the trio looked suspicious and the customs officials found 97,000 cigarette sticks of foreign brand upon further checking.
Smugglers have tried to bring foreign goods through aerial routes without paying customs duty. Recently, the Department of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) officials seized three kg of gold and Rs 2.10 lakh from the airport and arrested four including the ground staff in connivance with the smugglers.
It's worth mentioning here that two Indigo flights received hoax bomb threats from unknown miscreants at the airport on October 30. However, no explosive material was found by the bomb disposal squad during the subsequent search operation.
Sources said Indigo Airlines flight (6E-518) bound for Chennai from Lucknow at 18:00 received a bomb threat from unknown miscreants sending the security agencies tasked with the airport security into a tizzy. Following the inputs, a search operation was launched in the flight, however, no explosive material was found. The flight finally took off at 19:00.
A similar bomb threat was made to flight (6E-1416) which reached Lucknow from Abu Dhabi at 18:52, which also turned out to be a hoax.
An airport spokesperson said that the two flights were given clearance after no suspicious object was found. Earlier also on October 26, a bomb threat was made to a flight bound for Bengaluru at Lucknow Airport. Another threat was reported the next day on October 27 by an Akasa Airlines flight flying from Bengaluru to Ayodhya.
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