LUCKNOW: In a major haul, custom officals nabbed a passenger and an Air India bus driver at Amausi airport for allegedly smuggling gold worth Rs 1.68 crore into the country.
Around 3.25am on Wednesday, a 47-year-old passenger alighted from Salam Air flight OV 797 at Chaudhary Charan Singh Airport with 27 gold bars.
A senior customs officer said, “Since the accused passenger is a repeat offender, our advanced 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 inside and detained the passenger with his handbag in which he was carrying 27 gold bars wrapped in red tape. After interrogation, the passenger revealed his aid at the airport: an Air India bus driver,” the official said.
Explaining their modus operandi, the accused told custom officials that the passenger was supposed to handover the bag of gold to the bus driver at the tarmac. Following this, the driver would exit through a separate door meant for ground staff.
“The driver would have handed over the bag to another person outside the airport,” said the officer.
The Air India driver confessed that he had helped smuggle gold out of the airport at least five times earlier. The accused passenger has been caught in New Delhi earlier.
The two were produced before the chief judicial magistrate (economic offences) and sent to jail on Wednesday.
