Gold worth over Rs 88 lakh seized at Chennai airport

Customs department sleuths have seized gold worth over Rs 88 lakh in separate incidents at the airport here over the past two days, officials said on Wednesday. Acting on a tip, officials rummaged an Indigo aircraft which arrived from Dubai and seized two unclaimed packets wrapped in black adhesive tape beneath one of the seats.

On opening it, gold in paste form was recovered and its value was estimated to be Rs 48 lakh. In another incident on Wednesday, sleuths recovered gold from a passenger from Dubai who had arrived by an Emirates Airline flight. The man had concealed it in his rectum.

The contraband, worth Rs 7.1 lakh, was seized. On Tuesday night, customs sleuths recovered the precious metal in rubbery form from two women passengers on their arrival from Colombo by an Air India flight. Interrogation revealed that the two had concealed gold worth Rs 27.16 lakh in their rectum, a release said. The same night officials also seized gold bars worth Rs 6 lakh from a ladies' purse lying unclaimed in the arrival hall at the airport.