Newskarnataka – Mangalore
Mangalore: The officers of customs at Mangalore International Airport have thwarted another attempt to smuggle gold and seized it on Thursday February 13.
The customs officers detained a gold buckle set and two gold rods totally weighing 1022.07 grams valued at Rs 30, 91, 732 concealed in a leather belt buckle and inside a Hair Styling Crimper set in a suitcase.
The accused has been identified as passenger Sheminadh Puthen Purayil, a resident of Kannur, Kasargod. It is learnt that Sheminadh arrived at Mangalore International Airport from February 13 at around 7.25 am by Air India Express flight IX814 from Dubai.
According to the customs press release, while frisking the passenger with hand-held metal detector, the customs officer grew suspicious about the buckle set on the leather belt worn by him. The X-ray image showed the presence of high density metal. When asked if the buckle was made of gold or if he had any other item to be required to be declared to the customs, he replied in the negative, and the same was evident from the baggage disembarkation slip also, on rubbing the buckle set, its coating scraped off indicating the presence of yellow metal, the release stated.
Apart from this, the passenger was also found to be carrying a hair styling crimper set wherein two yellow coloured metal rods wrapped in black plastic covered were found concealed in two cylindricall tube-like parts of the hair styling set.
Later, a jewellery assayer confirmed and certified that the buckle set and the yellow coloured metal rods were made of gold. The operation was conducted under the supervision of Krishna Kumar Prasad, Assistant Commissioner of Customs at the airport.
The statement of the passenger was recorded, after which he was arrested and produced before the magistrate who remanded him in judicial custody. The investigation is in progress under the guidance of D Purushottam, Commissioner of Customs.
The officers of customs at Mangalore International Airport have detected several cases of smuggling of gold through various modus operandi, such as concealment of gold in the forme of wire in the beading of suitcase, in food cans, LED lights, electric stoves, shaving equipment, rechargeable battery etc. As a result the officers have seized 7618.01 grams of gold valued at Rs 2,28,25,769 in just one-and-a-half months of this year.
