Man held for smuggling gold worth ₹63 lakh hidden in his rectum

Mumbai: The Customs’ Air Intelligence Unit (AIU) arrested a 40-year-old passenger at Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport on Saturday for smuggling gold into India. The agency said that it seized gold weighing 1.09 kilogram worth ₹63 lakh from him which he was carrying in his recturm in dust format.

The arrested accused, Suban Bashir Ali, a native of Ajmer in Rajasthan, had landed in the city from Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. According to a Customs officer, a trap was laid on the basis of suspicion and Ali was intercepted along with a gold bar of 25 grams, and an oval-shaped gold dust in wax form worth 390 grams. During interrogation, the accused confessed to hiding the gold in his rectum. He voluntarily removed two oval-shaped pallets, wrapped in white adhesive tape, which contained gold dust in wax. The government-approved valuer later verified the veracity and purity of the recovered gold, a gold bar of 25 grams and three-oval shaped pellets containing gold, on examining them and confirmed that the valuables were 24-carat gold dust, having a total weight of 1,095 grams and valued at ₹63 lakh, said customs official.

The statement of the accused was recorded under section 108 of the Customs Act, in which he revealed that he was smuggling the gold for his monetary benefit and that the seized gold did not belong to him. He further confessed that the gold was handed over to him by one Bhanvru who lives in Riyadh. The accused was promised a payment of ₹50,000 if he delivered the gold to a person identified as Mohammad outside the Mumbai airport.

The accused was arrested in the case under Customs Act and he was produced in the court and granted judicial custody. The accused’s advocate Prabhakar Tripathi argued before the court that “The arrest was made for a bailable offence, so the court should grant bail. The bail argument hearing is scheduled for Monday.”