Two held in 1st big gold haul at domestic airport in 20 years

According to officials, the customs in Mumbai was tipped off on Saturday morning by the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence in Chennai after Shaikh narrowly escaped their trap. “DRI told us that a passenger travelling in an Air India flight from Muscat would conceal gold in the aircraft and that Shaikh would board the same flight from Chennai to Mumbai and collect it,” said a customs officer.

“The Muscat flyer vacated the seat 17 F after alighting at Chennai. Before he got off, he hid the consignment into a pipe near the life jacket beneath his seat,” the officer said.

Shaikh, who boarded the flight in Chennai, was allotted the same seat (17 F). “The DRI had been looking for Shaikh in Chennai, but he managed to give them the slip. Once the aircraft left Chennai, we were immediately alerted, so we knew who to look for,” the officer said.

Shaikh reportedly broke down immediately upon detention. “He confessed to have smuggled gold the same way on three occasions in the past, each time at the domestic airport. He is only a carrier of gold and was paid Rs 20,000 for each job. In Mumbai, he has no regular employment,” the officer said.

After his arrest, Shaikh was handed over to the airport police station.

In Chennai, based on Shaikh’s alleged confession, DRI arrested a Mumbai native, Zawed Pettiwala, later on Saturday.

Pettiwala, a resident of Lokhandwala in Andheri (West), and Shaikh took advantage of the absence of customs staff at the domestic terminal to freely smuggle gold out. “Smuggling at the domestic airport may be rampant, because we cannot catch smugglers unless we have a clear input. Shaikh is our first catch there in two decades,” said the officer.

In two other cases on Saturday, three men were caught attempting to smuggle gold and silver worth Rs 1 crore. In the first incident, one Mohamed Akram was caught at the Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport as he arrived from Goa in an Air India flight with gold and silver chains worth Rs 64 lakh and weighing 2.4 kgs. Customs also caught Mohammed Tanweez Shaikh, who arrived from Dubai and allegedly handed the ornaments over to Akram in Goa.

In the third case, 1.4 kgs of gold was seized from a passenger named Abid Mohammed Kashif, who arrived from Goa in a SpiceJet flight.
srinath.rao@expressindia.com