Gold worth Rs 1.30 crore seized at Amritsar airport

Gold weighing over 3 kg and worth Rs 1.30 crore was seized from two passengers upon their arrival from Dubai at the Shri Guru Ramdas International Airport here on Monday, custom officials said.

Customs Commissioner Dipak Kumar Gupta said the custom staff at the airport intercepted two passengers, residents of Tarn Taran and Patiala districts of Punjab.

During checking, it was found that the gold which they were trying to smuggle, was concealed in the form of wires and other items.

"The baggage examination revealed that gold in the form of silver colour wires were found concealed behind the metallic strip of the suitcase. Further, gold was found concealed in the small transformer kept in a toy car having 20 pieces of small 'E' shape silver colour plates.

Gold was also found concealed inside the small speaker. The customs officers also found six more bracelets in the baggage and on suspicion, cut open them only to find 48 small pieces of metallic objects resembling gold which was recovered beneath red and blue stone fitted in the bracelets," Gupta said.

"The gold recovered from one passenger weighs 1664.18 gram whose present market value is Rs 64,57,018. The gold recovered from the other passenger weighs 1,668.22 gram which has a market value is of Rs 65,50,293," Gupta added.