DRI Busts Gold Smuggling Syndicate At Mumbai Airport, Arrests Five Including Cleaning Staff For Retrieving Hidden Gold

Mumbai: Officers of Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) have busted a gold smuggling syndicate and have arrested five persons. Some of the members of the syndicate would retrieve smuggled gold kept in the aircraft's lavatory and later smuggle it out of the airport.

Five Accused Identified Including Passenger, Cleaning Staff, and Coordinators

Those booked have been identified as Mohamed Urwa (29), Rajesh Manjrekar (56), Zaheer Qureshi (42), Mohammad Ajhar Kazi (39) and Mohammed Ahmed (26).

The officers of DRI developed specific intelligence that a passenger Mohamed Urwa arriving from Dubai will conceal the gold in the aircraft of a flight which will be further retrieved by the private airport staff Rajesh Manjrekar and Zaheer Qureshi for further smuggling the gold out of the CSMI Airport Mumbai premises.

Cleaning Staff Spotted Exiting Aircraft; Two Gold Pouches Recovered from Qureshi

Acting upon the said intelligence, Urwa was identified and intercepted on July 22. As soon as all passengers deboarded, officers observed the cleaning staff entering the flight and after 15-20 minutes the cleaning staff who entered the aircraft earlier started exiting the flight and moving through the staircase of aero-bridge towards the tarmac.

The two-cleaning staff Rajesh Manjrekar and Zaheer Qureshi were identified and intercepted. Further, Manjrekar and Qureshi were informed they need to be searched. During personal search of Qureshi, two pouches were recovered from his trouser pockets which were absurdly heavy which later was found to be gold.

Manjrekar Directed Qureshi to Retrieve Gold from Aircraft Toilet Location

On enquiry, Zaheer informed that he was directed by Manjrekar to retrieve the said pouches which were secreted in the washroom/toilet/lavatory of flight. Gold dust in wax form valued at Rs 5.63 crore were recovered. During further enquiry with the cleaning staff Rajesh Manjrekar and Zaheer Qureshi, it was informed that on the direction of Manjrekar, Qureshi had retrieved the smuggled gold secreted in the toilet, washroom of the aircraft from a specific location.

"Both worked for monetary consideration for Ajhar. Further, Manjrekar informed that Ajhar was waiting outside the airport and the smuggled gold would be handed over to him by Qureshi. The entire chain of events was carried out in controlled manner and Ajhar was intercepted outside the CSMI Airport. On intercepting Ajhar informed that he was working on the direction of Mohammed Ahmed alias Mustaf for monetary consideration," said a DRI official.

In a swift follow-up action, Mustaf was also apprehended on the same day. Further, statements of all the accused were recorded under wherein they have accepted their role and admitted in their voluntary statements that they were dealing with smuggled foreign-origin gold. It appears that the said passengers acquired possession of and were concerned with the carrying, keeping, concealing, removing and dealing with gold worth Rs 5.63 crore.

Ravi Hirani advocate for the accused stated that his clients didn't had knowledge that gold was smuggled one. "Officers have arrested my clients in false case. They will produce the documents of gold purchased officially," he said.

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