Mumbai: The Customs intercepted two elderly persons in two separate cases for trying to smuggle gold collectively worth over Rs 79 lakh out of Chattrapati Shivaji international airport here purportedly at the behest of their relatives.
“We have detected two cases in which senior citizens were used to smuggle gold outside the airport and recovered gold worth around Rs 79 lakh,” said a customs official.
Both the incidents took place in the wee hours today.
In the first case, officials of the Air Intelligence Unit of Customs recovered gold weighing around 2.8 kgs worth Rs 67.7 lakh from 80-year-old Noorjahan who landed here in a flight from Dubai via Muscat.
“Gold was kept in a small zipper hand pouch and concealed in a specially-made zipper pocket in her salwar,” said the official.
Noorjahan was accompanied by Sadat Tanki and Khushnavid Tanki who tried to pass gold through green channel (the area earmarked for passengers not having any dutiable goods or other items for which declaration is required.)
In another case, officials intercepted a wheelchair-bound woman passenger (around 68-year-old), accompanied by her husband, and recovered gold worth around Rs 11.5 lakh.