NEW DELHI: Two women have been arrested by the customs department at Indira Gandhi International Airport (IGIA) in Delhi for allegedly trying to smuggle more than two kilogrammes of gold into India by hiding it in their rectum.
Besides them, two men have also been arrested for their involvement in the smuggling.
The accused persons had adopted a unique modus operandi.
Both the men from Ulhasnagar in Mumbai had travelled to Bangkok to get the gold from one of their contacts there. From Bangkok one of them came to Trivandrum and another landed in Chennai via Mauritius, a customs department official said.
The accused men boarded separate flights to Delhi with the women accomplices.
The gold was handed over to the women in their respective flights to Delhi from Trivandrum and Chennai.
The women then concealed 1.2 kg gold each inside their rectum in the toilet of the plane, the official claimed.
They were intercepted at the Delhi airport by the customs officials yesterday.
"On detailed examination of their baggage and personal search, 12 cut pieces of gold weighing 2.4 kgs having market value of Rs 71.64 lakh were recovered from the rectums of both the female passengers (1.2 kg from each passenger) who were travelling as domestic passengers," a customs department statement said.
The gold was seized and all the four passengers were arrested, it said.