Rs 1 crore worth abandoned gold seized from Air India flight

CHENNAI: Gold worth Rs one crore was found abandoned under a seat of an Air India flight that arrived here from Kualalumpur today.

The three kg of gold was found by the cleaning staff following which Customs officials detained the person who had travelled on that seat for inquiry, police said.

However, since the flight was also scheduled to be used as a domestic service connecting to Mumbai, Customs officials there also had been alerted.

Meanwhile, security officials recovered 35 live star tortoises allegedly being smuggled by a Singapore-bound air passenger and detained him.

Star tortoises are in demand in some of the Asian countries, including Singapore, as they are believed to contain medicinal values besides acting as an aphrodisiac, they said.