BENGALURU: Customs officials at the Kempegowda International Airport have found gold bars concealed inside a ball abandoned in an aircraft in the early hours of Wednesday. The gold is worth over Rs 11 lakh, said an airport source.
The toy was found on an IndiGo flight (6E 096) coming from Dubai to Bengaluru airport, which reached here at 11.44 pm on Tuesday (February 16).
"The Tola gold bars were concealed in a small toy ball in the aircraft. During routine rummaging of the plane, the toy was found abandoned inside," the source said.
One Tola bar is equal to 10 grams of gold. The exact weight of the bars came to 233.28 grams and the value of the gold is Rs 11,30,241, the source said.
"There were no claimants for the gold," the source added. ''Rummaging is done for international flights to ensure the flight is not used as a point for smuggling. Some international flights are converted as domestic ones and accomplices hatch a plan to pick up items left behind by previous passengers on planes," the source said.
Smuggling of gold from Dubai has seen a surge in the last one month. A week ago, Customs officials recovered 1.31 kg of gold valued at Rs 62.35 lakh from a flyer. He had concealed them as gold paste inside capsules in his socks and rectum. The flyer had brought four drones too.