BENGALURU: A possible angle of human trafficking has emerged in the international gold smuggling racket in Bengaluru, which was unearthed by the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) at the Kempegowda International Airport recently.
Two out of the six carriers in the gold smuggling racket, who were arrested in October last year at Bengaluru airport, were women.
They were reportedly misled by their handlers, who had promised them modelling jobs overseas, sources told The New Indian Express.
The DRI had exposed the cross country network of smuggling syndicate comprising ‘investors,’ most of whom are abroad, layers of middlemen, Customs officers, a gold refiner in the city and passengers, who were identified and hired as carriers.
“While most of the gold carriers reportedly said that they had agreed to the offer of smuggling gold in return for some petty payments and return tickets to the UAE, there were some, especially women, who said that they were sent overseas with the promise of jobs by their placement agents.
Once they landed abroad they were told to carry home gold in paste form, which they were assured would not be detected by the scanners at the international airport,” said an official source.
The smuggling racket involved three Customs officers at KIA, including a superintendent rank officer-Rajnish Kumar Saroh.
They had access to the roster at the airport. Saroh had allegedly colluded with two inspectors of Customs - Sudarshan Kumar and Shiv Kumar Meena, who would help in the safe passage of gold ‘carriers’ at the airport in return for alleged lucrative gratification.
“The tickets of the passengers were booked on the day and time when Kumar and Meena were on duty. Carriers were carefully chosen to avoid passenger profiling,” added the source.
The DRI had invoked the stringent provisions of the Conservation of Foreign Exchange and Prevention of Smuggling Activities (Cofeposa) Act, 1974 against Saroh and two middlemen.
The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) had booked the three Customs and GST officials, NT Jamsheer, who is the proprietor of ‘Best Way Super Market’ and is one of the investors and some other unknown persons in the gold paste smuggling racket.
The smuggling racket was unearthed in October last year when the DRI officers intercepted Jamsheer at the KIA.
According to official sources, 117 passengers are said to have smuggled in 180 kgs of contraband gold worth Rs 60 crores through KIA between June 2018 and October 2018.