Gold hidden under aircraft seat seized

According to the Customs, the officers received a tip off that gold was concealed in an Air India flight that had arrived from Sharjah via Thiruvananthapuram on Sunday. Following this, a team of officials conducted a thorough search as soon as the aircraft reached here from Thiruvananthapuram. They found a white cloth pouch hidden under the cushion of one of the seats, which had eight bangles and four chains, all of 24 K purity gold, totally weighing 1.25 kg, estimated to be worth Rs 41 lakh. It was seized under Customs Act, 1962.

The passenger, Mullukan Abdul Rahman Basheer Ahamed (56) of Tiruvarur, who had travelled from Sharjah to Thiruvananthapuram and from there to Chennai occupying the seat from where the gold was recovered, was secured. A statement from the agency said he admitted to have carried the gold, and was arrested.

In another case, Abdul Bakri (27) of Chennai, who had arrived from Kuala Lumpur via Singapore by Singapore Airlines flight on Saturday night, was intercepted by an Air Intelligence Unit officer at the exit of Customs arrival hall on suspicion of carrying gold. When searched, he was found carrying a piece of gold weighing 50 grams concealed in his pant pocket. He was also carrying three packets of gold in rubbery spread in his rectum.

On extraction from rubbery spread, gold weighing 217 grams of 24K purity was recovered. In total, 267 grams of gold of 24K purity, with an estimated value of Rs 9 lakh, was recovered and seized, the statement added.