Chennai: Airport employee, passenger from Dubai held for gold smuggling

A software engineer working at the Chennai airport and a passenger who arrived from Dubai were apprehended on Monday for allegedly smuggling gold bars worth Rs 1.5 crore, the CISF said.

They said the security personnel found that the passenger, Niyamatullah Hadi, was behaving in a suspicious manner as he entered a bathroom located in the airport terminal soon after 8 AM.

The passenger had landed from Dubai on an Emirates flight.

Security personnel intercepted Nizhal Ravi, a software engineer working with a company called Infosoft Digital Design & Services Pvt Ltd at the airport, after he exited the washroom "in a doubtful manner", the CISF said in a statement.

Two gold bars weighing 3.2 kgs, taped onto the waist, were recovered from the employee when he was frisked, they said.

He told the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) personnel that the gold was "handed over to him" by the passenger who arrived from Dubai.  The passenger (Hadi) was soon identified after CCTV footage was scanned, it said.

Both the persons and the gold bars estimated to be worth Rs 1.5 crore were handed over to the Customs authorities for further investigation, the force said.