Bhubaneswar: The sleuths of Customs department have seized foreign origin gold worth around Rs 50 lakhs while being smuggled into the country at Biju Patnaik International Airport (BPIA) here. This is the first seizure of gold this month after a brief lull. According to sources, the sleuths acting on a specific tip-off intercepted a passenger who reached at BPIA by an AIR Asia flight (AK-31) late Wednesday night. The person who is a resident of Kozhikode in Kerala boarded the flight from Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia.
During the search of his body, sleuths found gold in powder form with over 99 percent purity weighing 1310.650 grams that was valued at Rs 52, ,02,923.
Notably, the passengers from other states which have International Airports there instead arrive at BPIA are in the suspects list of the intelligence wing of the Customs department. Customs pick such persons and investigate them.
Recently, the officials of Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) seized huge quantity of contraband gold worth around five crores from two passengers in an express train near Rourkela in October.
