Nagpur: The Air Intelligence Unit (AIU) of the Nagpur Customs Department, acting on specific intelligence, has seized approximately 700 grams of gold worth Rs 40.49 lakh at Nagpur’s Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar International Airport on Thursday. The smuggled gold had been recovered from the cabin toilet of the Go Air flight G8–954 from Mumbai to Nagpur.
On the guidance of Abhay Kumar, Commissioner of Customs Nagpur, and directions of Peeyoush Bhati, Additional Commissioner, Customs, Nagpur, the teams led by Avinash Pandey, Assistant Commissioner of Nagpur Airport, further developed the intelligence and acted fast. The teams of Nagpur Customs apprehended two suspected travellers and interrogated them. On further investigation, the teams recovered a gold article of approximately 700 grams.
Dipak Sontakke, Avinash Parate, Avinash Khobragade, Rajesh Nawlakhe, Manish Pandharpurkar, all Inspectors were part of the teams that apprehended suspected travellers, interrogated them and recovered the gold concealed inside the toilet of the flight.
The flight had originally come from Phuket to Mumbai. Thereafter, it was converted as a domestic flight towards Nagpur from Mumbai. This modus operandi adopted by the smugglers is the same, wherein Nagpur Customs has booked a case on January 10 last and recovered 1.73 kg gold. In the case, the smugglers targeted an international flight, which converted into a domestic flight for their onward journey. This gave them an opportunity to evade the checking of Customs officials at the international airport. Nagpur Customs is alert and taking all measures, employing human intelligence and data analytics, to check and prevent gold smuggling at the airport.
Further investigation in the case is under process.
