The seizure of 24 gold bars from the toilet of a Patna-Kolkata aircraft belonging to a private airline has put customs officials in Kolkata on a high alert.
Although the police are clueless about who was bringing the 24 gold bars, they believe that the yellow metal was being smuggled in from Nepal. While senior police officers admitted that smuggling of gold has started again since the government hiked import duties by three times, after gold price recently went through a volatile phase, much of the gold is being smuggled in through the usual channels in Nepal and Bangladesh. “The present lot must have come from Nepal via the Indo-Nepal border at Raxaul in Bihar and by road to Patna,” a senior official said.
The matter came to light on Tuesday evening when cleaners at the Kolkata airport were tidying up the Jet Airways aircraft found 24 gold bars, worth around Rs 60 lakh, stashed inside a toilet compartment.
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