Odisha: Smuggled gold seized at Bhubaneswar airport

Bhubaneswar: After a brief lull, gold smugglers again set their eyes on Biju Patnaik International Airport (BPIA) in Bhubaneswar to carry out the illegal business as a passenger has been detained today on charges of smuggling the yellow metal.

The officials of the Air Intelligence Unit (AIU) of Customs have seized gold weighing about 254.47 grams grams from an air traveller soon after he reached at the airport from Kuala Lumpur.

The market value of the seized metal is believed to worth over Rs. 8, 20,156, Customs officials claimed.

He arrived here by an Air India flight A1-399 from Kuala Lumpur in the intervening night of 21st/22nd December.

The Customs sleuths intercepted the passenger after finding his activities suspicious. According to reports, the accused had concealed the gold in his rectum in form of powder wrapped in black tape and polythene like capsules.

“After opening the suspected items in which gold was mixed in powder form”, he said. “Treatment of the brown paste in laboratory resulted into gold”.