Two passengers from Dubai, who landed in Chennai and rushed to the exit gates of the airport, raised suspicion and were intercepted by officials of the Customs Department. Authorities said that they found 240 grams of 24 karat gold, worth Rs 12 lakh, in their baggage. The officials arrested one of the two passengers, who is a repeat offender, on Wednesday. A statement from the Commissioner of Customs said that officials intercepted two passengers, Sathik Abdul Mannan and Thamemun Ansari Abdul Rashid of Ramanathapuram, who reached Chennai in an Air India Express Flight from Dubai.
Customs officials searched the baggage and found two cut bits of gold weighing 98 grams and one gold paste bundle weighing 169 grams. After extraction, officials recovered 240 grams of gold of 24 karat purity, valued at Rs 12 lakh. Customs officials also seized 11 iPhones, 45 cartons of cigarettes and 11 refurbished Lenovo desktops, totally valued at Rs 10.66 lakh, from the duo under the Customs Act. Following the seizure, the police arrested Thamemun Ansari Abdul Rashid who had a previous offense pending against him.
In a similar seizure last month, a passenger from Dubai, Mohammed Hasan Ali (21), was struggling to reach the exit with his slippers and while he was about to step out, one of his slippers came off from his feet. A customs official who was posted nearby helped him wear the slipper back, but found it unusually heavy. He searched the slipper, to find that he had concealed gold in them.
Gold worth ₹ 12 lakhs concealed in slipper straps and Saudi Riyals & US Dollars worth ₹ 6.5 lakhs seized by @ChennaiCustoms. pic.twitter.com/qqgsLk5HAj
— Jitender Sharma (@capt_ivane) December 1, 2020
Customs officials seized four gold paste packets weighing 292 grams and on extraction recovered 239 grams of 24 karat purity gold valued at Rs 12 lakh. The officials also seized undeclared Saudi Riyals and US dollars valued at Rs 6.5 lakh from the passenger who had landed from Dubai by AI Express IX 1643 under Customs Act read with Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA).