Passenger with `66L gold in shoes nabbed

An air passenger from Hyderabad, who tried to smuggle gold by concealing it in his shoes was caught by the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence sleuths at Rajiv Gandhi International Airport during wee hours on Sunday. The officials found that the gold was smuggled from Sharjah to Thiruvananthapuram and then to Hyderabad via Indore in a domestic flight.

According to a senior DRI official, specific intelligence was received that the yellow metal was being smuggled by a passenger at RGIA. The sleuths have intercepted the passenger who arrived at Shamshabad from Indore.

The passenger arrived at around 12.40 am in an Indore flight — 6E-648 to Hyderabad. He was intercepted and examined. Four gold bars weighing 1,996.70 gm worth about `66.27 lakh were concealed in the passenger’s shoes.

“Preliminary investigations have suggested that the air passenger had retrieved the gold bars from inside the flight, where it was earlier left behind by another passenger who was travelling on an international leg from Sharjah to Thiruvananthapuram. The gold was left by an international passenger and retrieved by another passenger during a domestic run of the same flight. The apprehended passenger was found to be travelling on a fake name, using a fabricated Aadhaar card and was not carrying any documents to show as proof for the gold he was carrying,” said the DRI official

The smuggled gold has been seized under various provisions of the Customs Act, and the passenger has been apprehend.

Further reinvestigation is on in the case, the official said.