The Air Intelligence Unit of the Customs department arrested a cabin crew member of the Air India Express on the charge of attempting to smuggle gold worth ₹64 lakh through the Calicut International Airport on Wednesday.
Officials said Navneet Singh, 28, of Azadpur, Delhi, was arrested on the charge of carrying two packets of gold in compound form concealed in his shoes. The gold in compound form weighed 1.4 kg. After extraction process, gold weighing 1.25 kg was recovered, they said.
Singh, a member of the cabin crew of Air India Express IX 356 which arrived from Dubai, was nabbed on a tip-off from intelligence agencies. He was charged under Sections 77 and 135 of the Customs Act.
The seized gold was confiscated. Singh’s mobile phone was also seized for further investigations. After interrogation, he was released on bail, officials said.
Singh has been a cabin crew member with Air India Express since 2017. A report on his arrest was sent to the Air India Express office in Kochi.