Man conceals 6 gold bars in his body, caught

CHENNAI: Air customs on Saturday seized 600gm of gold bars worth 17 lakh from a passenger at the Chennai airport who arrived from Colombo.

Kader Mohideen Syed Mohamed Buhari, an Indian national who concealed six gold bars in his rectum and tried to pass through the green channel, was arrested.

Customs officials had increased surveillance of passengers arriving from sensitive airports. As Colombo was classified as sensitive, officials were monitoring passengers who arrived by a Jet Airways flight when they saw Kadar Mohideen passing through green channel. When questioned, he appeared to be nervous. He later confessed to carrying gold bars hidden in his rectum.

The gold bars had foreign markings saying they were 999.0 pure. "The passenger, in his voluntary statement, confessed he was a carrier and concealed six gold bars in his rectum for a pecuniary consideration and with an intention to avoid Customs duty. The passenger was arrested under the Customs Act, 1962," said a press release.

Chennai airport has seen a rise in the number of gold smuggling cases in the last two years. Sixty-three cases were registered in connection with gold smuggling attempts since April 2011 against 45 cases in 2010.

Passengers who have stayed more than six months abroad are often used as couriers and Sri Lankan nationals and Indian labourers returning from Malaysia were involved in most cases registered here, officials said. The arrested Lankans were smuggling gold to convert it into Indian rupee, which is twice in value compared to the Lankan currency.

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