BENGALURU: A total of 1.836 kilograms of gold valued at Rs 94.02 lakh were recovered from international passengers at Kempegowda International Airport who were allegedly smuggling from Gulf countries. The seizures were made in the arrivals area by the Air Intelligence unit of Airport Customs on Friday.
A senior customs official told The New Indian Express that the biggest seizure was made from a Kodagu native who arrived from Dubai by an Emirates flight. “We found 2320 grams of gold paste taped on to the calf muscle of one Mohammed, who arrived at KIA by flight no. EK564 on Friday morning. After extricating the paste, the gold we could get from it was 1435 grams.
The recovered gold has a market value of Rs 73.49 lakh,” the official said. The person was caught based on the profiling of passengers that is being done on a regular basis, he added. Another Dubai-based passenger had resorted to a similar technique of concealing gold in the form of paste. Mohammed Ashraf, a native of Honnavar in Karnataka had powdered gold and covered it with paste.
“The paste weighed 399 grams and the gold content in it was 251 grams which is worth Rs 12.77 lakh,” the official said. Ashraf came by an Air India Express repatriation flight (IX1246) which reached Bengaluru on Friday evening.
The third incident involved crude gold. “Bringing this gold in any form inside the country is banned. A chain made of Crude Gold weighing 150 grams was worn by a passenger from Kuwait who came by a Kuwait Airways flight (KU1353),” he added.
Two held for online cricket betting
Bengaluru : The City Crime Branch (CCB) have arresting two men, seized Rs 10 lakh and five mobile phones in a crackdown on online cricket betting. Akash (31) and his friend Naveen Daani (29) are residents of Chamarajpet and were nabbed on Cunningham Road. A senior police officer said that acting on a tip-off, the duo were nabbed when they were trying to contact clients through phone. They were using two mobile apps to run the online betting of the ongoing IPL matches. During the interrogation, the accused confessed that they had been conducting cricket betting from the last year and also revealed some of their associates' names. Efforts are on to nab other accused.