Two passengers with gold worth Rs 44.8 lakh held at Hyderabad airport

Hyderabad: Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) officials nabbed two passengers who were allegedly smuggling gold in paste form worth approximately Rs 44.80 lakh at Hyderabad Airport on Thursday.

On Thursday, at around 0400 hours, during Pre-Embarkation Security Check (frisking) at Security Hold Area (SHA) of Hyderabad Airport, Sub-Inspector Rajender Singh of CISF noticed the abnormal walking style of a passenger while he was approaching for frisking.

On suspicion, the said sub-inspector carried out a pat-down search of the passenger. During a pat-down search, two packets of yellow paste (appeared to be gold) weighing about 760 grams, were found concealed in shoes.

The passenger was identified as Mohammed Maroof, bound for Delhi by the IndiGo Airlines flight.

On enquiry, he revealed that another passenger namely Mohammed Tarik was also accompanying him. Immediately, a search was carried out electronically and physically and the said passenger was also located at the airport area.

He was intercepted and enquired. During checking/search, a packet of yellow paste weighing about 380 grams was also recovered from his possession.

On enquiry, both the passenger did not reply satisfactorily. Accordingly, the matter was informed to Senior Officers of CISF and Custom Officials.

On arrival of Customs Officials, both the passengers along with recovered three packets of yellow paste (appeared to be gold paste) weighing about 1.14 kg were handed over to them for further action in the matter.

Later, Customs Officials confirmed that the recovered yellow paste was gold in paste form and they have registered a case against both the passengers.

The total weight of the extracted gold from the paste is about 943.50 grams, worth approximately Rs 44.80 lakh.