Custom officials at Lucknow Airport seized gold approximately worth Rs.1.6 crore from a passenger coming from Dubai. The passenger was arrested on Saturday.
Briefing media, Commissioner (Customs), Lucknow, Ajay Dixit, said the arrested man had hidden the gold on his arms and legs.
"This man was coming from Dubai via a 'Fly Dubai' aeroplane, flight number FZ433. Our alert officers intercepted a passenger in the green channel who was carrying gold and diamond-studded gold ornaments. He was interrogated and later we searched him. We found out that he had hidden gold biscuits and ornaments in his arms and legs. We have seized the gold. The total worth of this seized gold is approximately 1.6 crore (around ten million rupees)," said Dixit.
He identified the man as Mohammad Arafeem Affu, a skilled worker with a passport from Hyderabad. "He is a citizen of Bhatkal in Karnataka. He is a skilled worker in Dubai and has travelled many times between India and Dubai," said Dixit.
Dixit congratulated customs officials for being alert and for performing their duties efficient. Custom officials said that they had received an alert about Fahim in advance. The sleuths intercepted Fahim when he was about to pass through the immigration cell. He was immediately taken into custody after the officials discovered a cache of gold ornaments and biscuits in his possession.
During the inquiry, Fahim told the custom officials that he was carrying the gold to Mumbai where he was supposed to hand it over to a person whom he did not know. This raised the suspicion of the custom officials who appeared convinced of Fahim being involved in some smuggling racket.
"We suspect involvement of a gang," said a custom official, while speaking to reporters at Amausi airport. Officials claimed that though Fahim is a resident of Karnataka, his passport mentioned Hyderabad in the address column.
This was probably the largest cache of smuggled precious metal that custom laid its hand on in the recent times. At the same time, the incident also raised a needle of suspicion over the kind of enforcement not only at the Dubai airport but also at the Amausi aiport. Sources did not ruled out the possibility of many such person trying to infiltrate into Indian shores via Lucknow route.
In fact, instances of seizer of currency, banned metals, and even arms have seen a sudden rise at the Amausi airport. It was only a week ago that the central industrial security force (CISF) recovered some 22 live cartridges of .32 bore from the toilet of Amausi airport.
