Delhi: Man from Abu Dhabi nabbed at IGI airport with 630g of gold concealed in his wig

In a shocking incident, a passenger was booked at New Delhi's Indira Gandhi International (IGI) airport for attempting to smuggle gold under his wig. According to the Customs Commissioner Office, the offender was inbound from Abu Dhabi and was nabbed at Terminal 3 of the IGI airport. Shockingly, the man had concealed approximately 630.45 gram of gold worth Rs 30.55 lakhs in his wig as well as his rectum. 

In a video posted by news agency ANI, the Custom officers at the airport were seen tearning off the offender's wig where he hid the gold to smuggle into India. The officers informed that the passenger has been arrested and further probe is underway to find more links to the case. It is worth noting that this is the second case of gold smuggling this month. 

The office of Commissioner of Customs, in an RTI reply last month had revealed that nearly 3,000 kg gold has been seized in over 2,500 cases of smuggling registered by Delhi customs. The office revealed that these cases were reported in a span of 11 years and most of them were at the international airport.

According to the Customs office, about 2,895 kg gold was seized from 2011 till January 10, 2022, and as many as 1,632 people, including 324 foreigners, have been arrested in these cases. So far, the customs department has registered 75 cases of narcotics, 317 cases of foreign currency, 42 cases of red sanders and 355 other cases, PTI reported. It is worth noting that the recent arrest is the second case of gold smuggling this month. 

Man arrested with one kg gold in Jaipur

In another instance, the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) had arrested a man from Jaipur railway station on April 2 for allegedly trying to smuggle gold. Similar to Delhi airport case, the smuggler was hiding the commodity in his rectum and had arrived in the state from Delhi. According to PTI, the DRI officers were acting on a tip-off. The gold was reportedly in form of six biscuits and were worth around Rs 52 lakh. According to a preliminary interrogation by a DRI officer, the gold was being smuggled into Indian from Myanmar. Following the arrest of the smuggler, he was presented before a court and put in jail. 

Image: ANI