Hyderabad: A city-based woman who attempted to smuggle 11.1 kg of gold into the country was arrested by the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) officials at the Shamshabad airport on Tuesday morning.
The officials also seized over Rs 1.5 crore foreign currency from the possession of the accused, Ziaunnisa Nasreen, which she had hidden in her room in a five-star hotel in Banjara Hills.
She had concealed the gold in specially-made cloth pockets and hung them to her body, a DRI official said.
Travelling business class from Dubai, she arrived in an Emirates flight at the Shamshabad airport at about 3 am and was stopped at the exit gate inside the airport. On physical examination, 14 gold bars, weighing `11.1 kg and valued at about Rs 3,63,52,500 were found in her possession.
“There was specific intelligence about the female passenger carrying gold from Dubai to India. The foreign-marked gold was concealed in specially made cloth pockets and socks along with the foreign currency of around Rs 4.25 lakh. The foreign currency was in the form of Singapore dollars and UAE dirhams,” a senior official from DRI, Hyderabad said.
On questioning, Nasreen told the DRI that she was living in five-star hotel in the city where she had concealed more cash.
A team immediately rushed to the hotel, located at Banjara Hills, and seized over Rs 1.5 crore worth of US dollars and Saudi riyals.
“The foreign currency seized at the five-star hotel was the sales proceeds of gold. She had exchanged Indian currency for foreign currency, to carry it out of the country, purchase the gold and smuggle it to India. She was making a minimum of `3 lakh profit selling a kg of gold,” said the official.
