LUCKNOW: In a major success against precious metal smugglers, customs sleuths nabbed an Air India bus driver and a passenger for allegedly smuggling gold worth Rs 1.68 crore into the country.
On Wednesday wee hours at around 3:25am, a 47-year-old passenger alighted from Salam Air flight OV 797 at Chaudhary Charan Singh International Airport, Lucknow with 27 gold bars weighing 3149.280 grams.
Speaking on anonymity, a senior customs officer said, “Since the accused passenger is a repeat offender, our advance passenger information system and intelligence gathering flagged him as soon as he checked in for the Lucknow flight from Muscat (Oman).”
“When the flight landed at Lucknow, our team went into the flight and detained the passenger with his handbag in which he was carrying 27 gold bars wrapped in red tape. After interrogation, the accused passenger revealed his aid at the airport--the Air India bus driver,” said the source.
Explaining the modus operandi, the duo told the customs investigating officers that the passenger was supposed to hand over the bag of gold to the bus driver at tarmac, following which the driver would exit with gold from a separate exit door meant for ground handling staff.
“The driver would have handed over the gold to another person waiting outside the airport, who would carry the smuggled precious metal to the national capital region,” said the officer.
The Air India driver confessed that he had helped at least five times to smuggle the gold out of the airport, while the accused passenger had been caught in New Delhi as well earlier.
The duo was produced before the chief judicial magistrate (economic offences) and sent to jail by afternoon.
