Passenger held with gold bars worth Rs 34.8L at Pune airport

“On interrogation, the passenger confessed that he had travelled from Dubai to Ahmedabad through an international flight, concealed the gold in the aircraft, and then retrieved it when he travelled from Ahmedabad to Pune in the same aircraft. The passenger was arrested under the provisions of the Customs Act for his attempt to smuggle gold into the country,” the press release said.

According to the Customs department, this case is the latest in a series of smuggling cases detected by Pune Customs’s officers since international flights commenced earlier this year.

“In December, officers seized 800 gms of 24 carat gold from two passengers travelling from Chennai to Pune… The passengers boarded the flight from Chennai and retrieved six gold chains and a bracelet of foreign origin valued at Rs 40.36 lakh, which was concealed below the seat by another passenger in the international leg of the flight. However, their attempt was foiled by the officers who unearthed their modus operandi,” the press release said.

On February 8, Customs officers at Pune airport seized about Rs 6 lakh of illegally acquired foreign currency from a passenger who attempted to smuggle it from Pune to Sharjah.