Mumbai Airport Customs arrested a 41-year-old Malad resident after allegedly recovering 1.41 kg of 24-carat gold dust worth Rs 1.38 crore. The passenger had arrived from Hanoi and was intercepted while crossing the green channel. Customs said seven pouches containing gold dust were found concealed in his trouser pocket.

Customs officials recovered seven pouches containing gold dust from a passenger arriving in Mumbai from Hanoi | AI Generated Representational Image

Mumbai, September 18: The Mumbai Airport Customs officials have thwarted a gold smuggling attempt and arrested a 41-year-old Malad resident who allegedly acted as a carrier in the smuggling syndicate. The officials have seized over 1.4 kg gold from the possession of the accused passenger who had sourced the precious metal from Vietnam.

According to the Customs sources, a passenger P.V. Sharma, who had arrived at CSMI Airport, Mumbai, on Thursday night from Hanoi, was intercepted by the Air Intelligence Unit (AIU) officers while crossing the green channel on the basis of spot profiling.

On being asked if he was carrying any dutiable goods, contraband or crude gold in his baggage or in person, Sharma replied in the negative. Not being satisfied with his answers, the officers decided to examine his baggage and conduct his personal search.

During the personal search of Sharma, something heavy was found in one of the pockets of his trouser. Hence, he was asked to remove the item from the pocket. On examination of the said item, it was found that there were a total of seven pouches containing a substance purported to be gold dust.

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Gold Dust Seized From Passenger

The officers recovered and seized a total 1.41 kg of 24KT gold dust valued at Rs 1.38 crore from the passenger. Thereafter, the Customs officers also took over and seized the travel documents such as the boarding pass of the journey of the passenger from Hanoi to Mumbai, officials said.

The statement of the accused was then recorded wherein he had admitted to having possession, concealment, carriage, non-declaration and recovery of seized goods. He also admitted that he was involved in gold smuggling, following which he was placed under arrest on Friday morning.

"If left unchecked, this modus operandi is likely to be exploited by the smugglers in a big way even to smuggle other contraband items which might be detrimental to national security. This modus operandi is required to be nipped in the bud also to avoid huge financial loss to the exchequer. The investigation in this case is at the preliminary stage and the nexus is yet to be revealed by the accused," a Customs officer said.

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Accused Remanded To Judicial Custody

Advocates Arun Gupta and Ashish Singh argued for the accused in the court, following which he was remanded to judicial custody.

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