Gold worth Rs 25 lakh found on int’l flight

Tribune News Service

Mohali, August 12 

Customs sleuths recovered about 950-gram gold worth Rs 25 lakh from a flight at Chandigarh International Airport here today. The gold was hidden under a seat of the Dubai-Mohali flight. 

According to sources, the gold, in the form of small discs, was kept in a packet hidden under a seat of the aircraft, which was further scheduled to fly to Delhi on domestic service. However, nobody was nabbed as all international passengers had reportedly crossed the immigration counter before the recovery of the gold, the sources said. 

The recovered gold discs are plated with other metal. 

“Somebody, who was travelling from Mohali to Delhi, was to pick the packet before landing in Delhi, but alert sleuths foiled the smuggling attempt,” said the sources. 

A similar attempt was made on June 14 when the customs staff had nabbed a 19-year-old smuggler and recovered 840-gram gold worth Rs 23.11 lakh from him at the airport. The accused, Arsalan from Delhi, had hidden the gold in a belt and kept it under the cushion of his seat in the aircraft from Dubai to Mohali.