Air customs officials in Chennai on Sunday (April 18) recovered and seized a total of 1.35kg gold in two separate cases under the Customs Act.
Based on intelligence that gold was likely to be smuggled from Dubai by concealing in an aircraft, Indigo Flight 6E-66 from Dubai was rummaged. According to officials, a heavy white circular disk was found concealed below wash basin, in the washroom situated in the front of the aircraft.
On scraping off the paint, it was found to be a gold disc weighing 1kg and it was worth Rs 48.77 lakhs. It was recovered and was seized as unclaimed under Customs Act.
In another case, during surveillance in the airport transit area two heavy packets wrapped in white adhesive tape were found in one of the washrooms. On being cut open, gold paste weighing 503 grams was recovered.
On extraction it yielded 356 grams of gold valued at Rs 17.1 lakhs and same was and seized as unclaimed under Customs Act.
Further investigation is under progress, said officials.
