Mumbai, Feb 01: Mumbai Airport Customs officers have recently seized a packet containing gold found concealed below the seat of a passenger on an international flight arriving from Dubai. The passenger who had occupied the seat was identified and intercepted after he had crossed the green channel without making any declaration.
Interestingly, the passenger told Customs officers that he was not aware of how the smuggled gold was to be taken out from the aircraft and hence he left without the packet, but he ran out of luck as he was caught by Customs on the airport premises.
The arrested person has been identified as Pranav Patil (28), a resident of Sangli.
Packet recovered from aircraft
According to Customs sources, credible information was received from airline security staff that a black-coloured taped packet was found concealed below a passenger seat on an international flight arriving from Dubai to Mumbai.
Accordingly, Customs officers proceeded to the aircraft and, in the presence of security and engineering staff, recovered the packet from below the seat. The recovered packet was suspected to contain gold.
Passenger intercepted after green channel
The recovered packet was taken into custody and brought to the Arrival Hall at CSMI Airport. Meanwhile, the passenger who had occupied the seat, Pranav Patil, was identified and intercepted after he had crossed the green channel without making any declaration. The passenger identified the recovered packet as belonging to him.
On opening the packet, one transparent pouch containing 24-carat gold dust was recovered. The total value of the seized gold dust was assessed at Rs 1.77 crore.
Admission and investigation
In his statement to Customs, Patil admitted his knowledge, possession, concealment and deliberate smuggling of the seized gold into India as per the instructions of his handler, identified only as Pratik. Patil also told Customs that he was not aware of how the smuggled gold was to be taken out from the aircraft and hence he left without the packet.
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“If left unchecked, this modus operandi is likely to be exploited by 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 to avoid huge financial loss to the exchequer. The investigation in this case is at a preliminary stage and the nexus is yet to be revealed by the accused passenger,” said a Customs source.
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