The air intelligence unit of the Customs at the Kempegowda International Airport are stumbling on newer modes of gold smuggling every time a suspected passenger is picked up.
Modes such as gold bars being converted into rods coated with silver and then carried with a fruit juicer to avoid suspicion and gold concealed as wires in suitcase linings, etc, have startled the sleuths.
In the first week of August, Customs officials seized more than 1,700 gm of gold worth Rs 50 lakh from three passengers, including a woman. The arrested were Ashfaque Ahmed Kakde (50), Farhana Begum (35) and Inshaf Mohammed (24), a Sri Lankan national.
Kakde had arrived from Dubai on the evening of August 4.
On interrogation, they got contradictory versions from him. A thorough scrutiny of his check-in baggage revealed concealment of gold in the juicer he was carrying. The gold was converted into a rod and placed in the hollow of the juicer’s support stand.
Kakde is a native of Bhatkal and ran a consumer goods business in Dubai. A Bhatkali friend requested him to carry the gold and deliver it to his friend in Bhatkal. He was assured of a commission on his return to Dubai, the sleuths said. His to and fro trip was also sponsored.
On the night of August 3, sleuths apprehended Farhana Begum, 35, who arrived from Bangkok. She had four biscuits of 100 gm each concealed in her undergarment.
Farhana is a city resident and a class X dropout. She left for Bangkok in search of a job at the behest of her friend. Her friend, however, asked her to carry the consignment to Bengaluru for Rs 10,000.
Another case
In another case, Inshaf Mohammed, a Sri Lankan national, was detained in the early hours of August 1.
He had come in a flight from Colombo. On checking his baggage, it was found that he had concealed three gold wires, totally weighing 511 gm, in the inner lining of his suitcase.
Mohammed told sleuths he was in the business of readymade garments, which he
procured from India, in Sri Lanka.
He was asked by a contact, who gave him the gold, to hand it over to a person waiting outside the Bengaluru airport for Rs 10,000.
Further investigation in the case is on.
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