Journalism of Courage
Officials of the customs department at Lohegaon International Airport recovered two gold biscuits weighing 233.36 grams valued at Rs 6.26 lakh from a passenger who arrived from Dubai on Saturday.
Officials said that during checks, the man was found to have concealed the gold in his rectum. An offence has been registered and probe revealed the man had plans to take the smuggled gold to Mumbai.
Earlier, customs officials had recovered 36 gold biscuits weighing 4.2 kilograms worth Rs 1.113 crores from two female passengers who had also arrived from Dubai to Pune in the early hours of October 28. The two women were produced before a court October 29, which remanded them to judicial custody for
10 days.
In both cases, the gold “carriers” had come to Pune Airport by a Spice Jet flight No SG 52.
“A number of cases of unsuccessful attempts to smuggle gold have been made by unscrupulous elements in the recent past from Pune airport and coincidentally, such passengers arrived from this very Spice Jet aircraft coming from Dubai. Customs officers investigating these cases are keeping in mind various factors,” stated a press release issued on October 28.
