Lucknow, Nov 1 (IANS): A passenger and his two handlers were caught here at Chaudhary Charan Singh International Airport with 1.60 kg gold that was concealed in the form of three capsules inside the rectum.
The passenger walked out of T1 (international terminal) with the gold as customs officials failed to detect the precious metal.
The accused passenger identified as Raju Kumar Shah of Gopalganj, Bihar had arrived from Dubai on October 28 late night and after customs clearance, he walked out from T1 at around 12:30 a.m. (October 29), where he was contacted by his two handlers identified as Mustafa Raza and Mohammad Hussain. Both the handlers hailed from Nagaur district of Rajasthan.
"Our source had tipped off that two suspects have been continuously visiting the airport at odd hours, especially during international flight arrival. So, on Saturday night as soon as the two suspects Mustafa Raza and Mohammad Hussain arrived at the T1 area, we started monitoring their movement. One of the two suspects took out his mobile phone and opened the picture gallery to match the identity of the courier whom they were supposed to take Delhi via bus. As soon the three met and started walking towards the parking area, constable Sandeep Kumar and I nabbed them,” said Sub-Inspector (SI) Jag Prasad of the airport police outpost.
“Initially we did not find any suspicious stuff in the courier luggage, but what triggered us to further interrogate the suspects was that two hailed from Rajasthan and one from Bihar, and they had never met before. After interrogation, the courier spilt the beans and said that he was carrying gold inside his rectum, and he walked out of T1 without any problem,” he said.
“Mustafa Raza told us that in October itself, he came 12 times to receive different couriers at the airport. After consulting seniors, the three were handed over to the customs department for legal proceedings” added SI.
Meanwhile, SHO Shailendra Giri of Sarojini Nagar said: “It is a mystery for us, how a passenger with more than one kg of gold concealed in his rectum was allowed to walk out from T1 and customs sleuths failed to detect.”
A.N. Haqq, the Assistant Commissioner of Customs at Lucknow airport said: “It is not easy to detect gold concealed in the rectum. The metal detectors do not work in such cases. Therefore, we depend on the profile of the passenger. We check if he or she was capable of funding the air travel as in most of the cases the courier cites the reason for returning from the Middle East is tourism, which is not true.”
“We arrest gold couriers only when the gold worth value is above Rs 50 lakh, otherwise we confiscate the gold and let the courier walk free after documentation,” he added.