Wednesday 24 / April / 2024
Muscat: A large number of gold biscuits weighing nearly 3 kilograms were seized by Indian customs officials, recently.
“The Delhi customs officials at Indira Gandhi International Airport (IGIA) seized 2,813 grams of gold valued at Rs.85 lakhs (OMR45,000) from a passenger coming from Muscat on September 1, 2018. The passenger admitted to having smuggled gold through the Mumbai and Ahmedabad airports in India. The passenger has been arrested,” a statement from IGIA said.
In July 2018, gold worth some Rs.1 crore (OMR54,000) had been seized by customs officials from four people who were allegedly trying to smuggle it into the country at the IGIA in Delhi.
The seizures were made in two separate instances.
In the first case, a man was intercepted after his arrival from Dubai and his baggage search resulted in the seizure of 20 gold bars, collectively weighing 2.3kg, following which the passenger was arrested.
Another instance
In another instance, three men were intercepted after their arrival from Muscat on Friday. A personal search and an inspection of their baggage resulted in the recovery of seven gold bars weighing 1.01 kilograms. The three accused were arrested, the statement said.
In August 2017, 17 gold biscuits weighing around 2 kilograms were seized by Indian customs officials.
“The seizure was made from two passengers who had arrived from Muscat at Trivandrum airport on Saturday morning,” a statement from Customs at Trivandrum airport said.
