Bhubaneswar: It seems the Biju Patnaik International Airport (BPIA) in Odisha capital has turned out be a safe haven for gold smugglers as a passenger has been detained today for carrying the smuggled gold just six days after a similar seizure.

The Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) of Customs at the airport seized 295 grams of gold worth Rs 9 lakh from a passenger this afternoon, sources said.

publive-image

The passenger had arrived here from Bangkok in an Air India flight AI-339. He was intercepted by the Customs officials at the exit while he was passing through the green channel.

Sensing something was fishy, the officials stopped the passenger and during search it was found that the cylindrical size precious metal was hidden inside his rectum.

The identity of the passenger is yet to be ascertained.

The officials seized the gold as the passenger tried to smuggle the gold into the country by concealing it to evade Customs duty. Further investigation is on.

Notably, on June 16, Customs sleuths intercepted one passenger hailing from Mohali in Punjab who arrived from Bangkok by an Air India flight and seized gold weighing 243 grams. The seized gold had a market value of Rs 7.91 lakh.

Similarly, the unit, on June 14, seized gold bars weighing 355.12 grams from a passenger at the airport. The market value of the gold bars was Rs 11.37 lakh.

The Customs officials, on May 7, caught three passengers carrying 5.822 kg of smuggled gold worth Rs 1.8 cr outside the airport here which was the largest haul of gold consignment seized by the enforcement agency at the city airport.