Gold seized at Odisha capital airport again; fifth in a week

Bhubaneswar: Yet another incident of seizure of gold from passengers at Biju Patnaik International Airport (BPIA) in Odisha capital took place today as Customs Department seized over 300 grams of gold from a person.

The seized gold, worth around Rs 9.53 lakh, was recovered from a passenger who arrived from Bangkok at 6 am. He was possessing a gold chain and a bala of foreign origin, sources said.

The man hailing from Bangalore arrived here from Bangkok by Air India flight AI-339. Air Intelligence Unit of Customs at BPIA intercepted him and recovery of smuggled items upon body search led to his arrest.

This is the fifth such incident at the airport within a week as the Air Intelligence unit of the department had on March 29 seized 15 gold bars weighing 1143.78 grams worth Rs 34,90,816 from two passengers of Indian origin hailing from Punjab who arrived from Bangkok via Kuala Lumpur by Air Asia flight AK-31 on intervening night of 28th/29th March.

Similarly, three gold bars and 143 gold rings having a combined weight of 378 grams worth over Rs 12 lakhs were recovered from two passengers hailing from Thane, Maharashtra on March 28.