Daijiworld Media Network - Mangaluru
Mangaluru, Apr 20: Acting on credible intelligence, the officers of the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI), Mangaluru, on Wednesday April 19 arrested a passenger and recovered gold worth over Rs 10 lac at Mangalore International Airport here. The gold was concealed by the passenger inside his body.
The arrested has been identified as Chattanchal Abdul Razak (49), and hailing from Kasargod.
The DRI officers intercepted Razak at the Mangalore International Airport shortly after his arrival from Dubai by Spice Jet flight SG 60 at around 6.30 pm. Later, a thorough interrogation and examination of the passenger revealed that he had secreted four gold bars inside his rectum which were safely removed after taking advice of medical professional.
The said gold bars weighing 349.80 gms in total were found to be of 24 carat purity and their current market value was placed at around 10.5 lac. The contraband gold was later seized by the officers of DRI under the provisions of the Customs Act, 1962.
The passenger, on interrogation admitted that he is a regular in this business and as revealed from his passport has been frequently landing at various airports in Mangaluru, Mumbai, Delhi, Ahmadabad, Chennai, Kochi, Trivandrum, Kozhikode, Bengaluru, Goa and Lucknow. He also revealed that he conceived this ingenious way of smuggling gold into the country by secreting it inside his rectum as he knew that the customs check at airports would concentrate mainly on baggage screening and frisking, but concealments like this will largely go undetected.
Further investigation in the case is in progress.