NEW DELHI: A grandmother-granddaughter duo from Uzbekistan were arrested by Customs officials at the Indira Gandhi International (IGI) Airport for allegedly trying to smuggle in gold worth Rs 8.16 crore, in what has been described as one of the largest seizures of the valuable yellow metal in recent times.
A massive manhunt was launched by the officials to apprehend one of the accused passengers, who had changed her clothes at the airport in an attempted bid to give them the slip, according to a senior customs official.
The accused smugglers were intercepted following their arrival at IGI airport from Tashkent on Tuesday.
The customs officials stated that one of the passengers had been identified on the basis of intelligence inputs and was tailed right from the time of her disembarkation from the plane. “The said passenger (the older woman) was intercepted, however, the search of her baggage and person did not reveal any contraband. She was then allowed to go out," the official said.
Another passenger, said to be the first woman's granddaughter, was also identified on the basis of the same information and seemed to be moving around in a suspicious manner, he added.
It was then decided to keep her under watch and at the point she was attempting to cross the green channel, she was also accosted. Upon checking her baggage and person, nothing incriminating was discovered. They allowed the second passenger too to go out, the official said.
Soon they came across fresh input that the second passenger had left her baggage abandoned at the customs arrival hall fearing she would be caught. Customs officers then traced a bag with no markings seen near the conveyer belt numbered nine, the same place where the woman was seen moving around earlier, he said.
This bag was scanned and suspicious images were then seen, which suggested the presence of gold or gold items inside. “Since no claimant was available, the bag was opened, which led to the recovery of around 6.5 kilograms of gold in the form of chains etc.," the official said.
The seized items were calculated to be worth Rs 8.16 crore, the official added.
It was one of the largest seizure of gold at the airport in recent times, he said.
Custom officers started scanning the CCTV footage to identify the person who had left the bag which contained the gold. Soon, they discerned a woman leaving the bag near belt number nine. Efforts were made vigorously to trace the passenger.
They suspected that the suspected smuggler might try to escape from the country and a team of customs officers was immediately dispatched to the airport’s departure side, officials later said.
The officers managed to locate the second passenger who was about to board a plane bound for Almaty in Kazakhstan, the official said. It was apparent that she had changed her clothes within the period of a few hours after her arrival from Tashkent and before boarding the plane for Almaty, in a bid to throw customs authorities off her track.
Upon interrogation, she declared that she was responsible for abandoning the bag containing the gold at the customs arrival hall. Based on the information garnered from her, the main suspect was soon traced from outside the airport and later both were arrested.
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