NEW DELHI: Seven persons have been arrested at Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International (IGI) airport by the Customs department, after a gold smuggling racket was busted after a 24-hour-long operation.
While three of these were passengers, customs found four airline staffers belonging to two Airlines – IndiGo and SpiceJet were also involved in helping smuggle the gold, placing them under arrest as well, officials said.
Customs says the incident occurred on July 20, when based on suspicion and a prior tip-off, three passengers arriving at Delhi airport’s Terminal-3 (T3) from Jeddah via flight number QR570 were intercepted after they crossed the green channel. A detailed personal and baggage search was initiated and that resulted in the recovery of two gold bar pieces and a gold biscuit from the baggage of two passengers.
"The three items, weighing around 517 grams and with a value of Rs 22.89 lakh was recovered from the bag of two out of the three passengers," said a senior customs official, stating the third passenger was also suspected to be involved however, with interrogation later revealing that the passenger had handed over the gold to an IndiGo staffer.
"On the basis of interrogation, it has been transpired that three members of a syndicate of IndiGo and one member of SpiceJet were also involved in smuggling of gold and they have also admitted their involvement in smuggling of 960 grams of gold previously," said customs in a statement on Saturday.
In the past, several airline staffers have been caught assisting smugglers, often carrying gold which may have been left behind seats, or in the flight to a third party. In cases, the airline staff is handed over gold just before the green channel, for safe passage of the gold.
Customs says with the previous smuggled gold taken into account, the group had so far smuggled gold worth Rs 72.46 lakh, with all seven taken into custody and placed under arrest under section 104 of the customs act. "Further investigation is in progress to determine if more gold had been smuggled in the past in a similar manner and if more members were involved," said an official.
IndiGo in a statement on Saturday said,” A customs investigation has highlighted the involvement of an employee in a case relating to illegal movement of gold. We are fully cooperating and assisting the concerned authorities in this investigation.”
Till the filing of the copy, SpiceJet had not commented on the matter.
