Chennai Airport customs seizes smuggled gold worth Rs 1.58 crore

Chennai: The customs officials at Chennai Airport seized smuggled gold worth Rs 1.58 crore on five occasions during the week. According to a customs press release, 1.2 kg of gold jewels valued at Rs 36 lakh had been seized from women passengers namely Jyothi (44) and Vairambal (65), both belonging to Madurai, on Thursday. They were arriving from Kuala Lumpur. “They had worn the jewels which were not declared,” the release said.

In another case, Shamirul Hakh (39) Kerela, returning from Dubai, was intercepted and 133 grams of gold worth Rs 4 lakh were seized from him. “On Tuesday, the officials had found 799 grams of 24-carat purity was seized from Singapore Indigo flight during rummaging. The value of the seized gold is Rs 25 lakh. Also, the officials had detected 1.7 kg gold worth Rs 52 lakh from soap dispenser bottles in toilets of Indigo flight during March,” the officials said.

Sri Lankan passport holder Suseema Santhi Edirisinghe (46), who arrived from Colombo by Indigo Airlines on Tuesday, was intercepted and 111 grams of gold valued at Rs 3 lakh were recovered. The total worth of gold seized is Rs 1.58 crore.

In addition, the officials, on Wednesday, had seized foreign currency in denomination of Japanese Yen 4.4 lakhs worth Rs 2.65 lakhs from Naina Mohamed (50) of Chennai from the departure hall of airport. He was bound for Kuala Lumpur, the officials said.