Dr B Thomas (Special correspondent)
Officials of Bengaluru Air customs busted a gold smuggling racket and arrested two men who tried to smuggle gold paste concealed in the waistline of undergarment at KIAL on Friday.
Based on a tip off from the officials of Directorate of Revenue Intelligence, the custom officials confronted two passengers soon after they landed at Airport from Dubai and taken into custody.
The officials after a details inquiry recovered 2843 grams of gold paste total worth Rs 1,44,78,607 from them.
This is the second crack down on gold smuggling with similar modus operandi as on last Sunday the officials caught two men from Kozhikode, Kerala,and recovered gold worth an estimated Rs. 97.4 lakh in paste form by concealing it in custom-stitched undergarments.
They were nabbed by Customs sleuths at Kempegowda International Airport (KIA) within a span of three days.
Investigators suspect the duo to be part of a larger smuggling gang.
The Bengaluru unit of the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence received a tip-off on gold smuggling attempts,which was passed on to the KIA Customs sleuths and stepped up vigil .
The duo have been taken into custody for further investigations to ascertain their smuggling network .
