Mumbai : Three airline passengers with ingenious methods of concealing gold – such as in the handle of a frying pan and the CPU of a desktop computer – were intercepted by Customs officials on Tuesday and Wednesday, leading to a seizure of a little over 1.6 kg of the precious metal, worth over Rs 42 lakh.
One passenger with the highest quantity of gold, Hiren Chauhan, who possessed an Indian passport, was found with 1.11 kg of gold in the form of 10 gold bars weighing 116 grams each. Chauhan had arrived from Dubai when he was intercepted by the Customs officials after the inline screening of his baggage. He had hidden the gold bars inside the transformer of a desktop computer’s CPU. The gold bars, collectively worth Rs 27.88 lakh, were discovered when his baggage was being screened.
The second passenger, Safia Sharif Mohammed, was caught smuggling gold on Tuesday night. She possessed a British passport and had arrived from Sharjah. She was carrying 350 grams of gold in the form of four crude bangles and one chain, which might not have been suspected of being genuine. The crude jewellery was worth Rs 8.74 lakh.
Another passenger, Mannil Kadavan, who arrived from Doha, had hidden the gold inside the handle of an aluminium frying pan. The smuggled gold weighed 232 grams and was worth Rs 5.79 lakh. This, too, was discovered during the inline screening of Kadavan’s baggage.
