Gold seized from passenger at Hyderabad Airport

Hyderabad: Customs officials at Rajiv Gandhi International Airport in Hyderabad on Monday seized 316.40 grams of gold from a passenger who arrived from Dubai.

The man had concealed the gold valued at Rs 15.71 lakh in voltage up-down AC converter.

According to customs officials, the passenger arrived by Flight FZ-439 from Dubai. A case of gold smuggling has been booked against him.

The airport has seen a series of incidents of gold seizure during the last few days.

On December 10, the Customs officials recovered 7.3 kg gold from four Sudanese who had concealed it in their rectum.

The passengers, including two women, had arrived from Dubai by flight no AI 952.

According to the department, they had concealed 7.3 kg gold valued at about Rs 3.6 crore in their rectum. The same was recovered and seized.

Last week, Hyderabad Customs also handed over 25 kg of gold to Security Printing and Minting Corporation of India Ltd (SPMCIL).

The Finance Ministry recently decided seized or confiscated gold will be sold to the RBI only. This does not include gold ornaments or jewellery.

A tripartite MOU between Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC), Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and the SPMCIL was also signed.