Gold worth over Rs 2.4 crore seized at IGIA;AI SATS employee held

NEW DELHI: Three persons including an employee of Air India SATS, engaged in in-flight food related services, have been arrested for allegedly smuggling gold worth over Rs 2.4 crore at Indira Gandhi International Airport (IGIA) here.

About 10 kgs of gold was seized in different cases reported in past four days. Of these, three kgs of gold, including one kg unclaimed yellow metal recovered from a toilet of an airplane, was seized today, customs officials said.

A lady passenger was intercepted after her arrival from Bangkok here early morning. She was allegedly found carrying two kgs gold. The gold was seized and the passenger was arrested, they said.

During random checking of a flight which had come from Visakhapatnam, customs officials found one kgs gold from its toilet. The flight had earlier come from an international sector, the officials said.

Whereas, two persons including an Air India SATS employee were arrested for allegedly smuggling gold worth Rs 50 lakh at the airport.

The duo, identified as Ramavadh Singh Kushwaha, who works as ground handling staff, employee of Air India SATS, and Asif Ali Khan, who hails from Delhi, were intercepted by the customs officials after their arrival from Singapore on Friday, a press release issued today by the customs said.

They were in-transit to board another flight to Dubai. Kushwaha was intercepted when he was about to exit from a gate in departure hall with two kgs of gold allegedly kept in a bag being carried by him, it said.

The bag belonged to Khan. The gold, which values Rs 48.75 lakh, was seized and both the passengers were arrested, the release said.

Air India SATS or AISATS is a 50:50 joint venture between Air India Limited, and SATS Limited, a leading gateway services and food solutions provider in Asia.

About 3.2 kgs of gold was also seized on the same day from few passengers, the officials said.

In total, at least 10 kgs of gold has been seized in last four days in separate incidents. The total value of the yellow metal seized in these cases is Rs 2.43 crore, they said.

"We have informed Air India about the case and arrest of its ground handling staff," a senior customs official said.