Gold and jewellery worth over Rs 96 lakh seized from woman at Hyderabad airport

Gold bars weighing 1.4 kg and valued at over Rs 67 lakh were seized at the Rajiv Gandhi International Airport in Hyderabad from a woman, who arrived from Dubai on Saturday, officials of the Customs Department said. The passenger was intercepted during a routine customs check and was found to have concealed five gold bars and jewellery of 22 carats in her baggage, an official release said.

The gold bars weighed 1,427.63 grams and were estimated to be worth Rs 67.84 lakh, while the jewellery weighed 593.55 grams and was worth Rs 28.2 lakh, it said. The smuggled goods were seized under the Customs Act and an investigation is underway, the release added.

Though the lockdown due to the coronavirus has hit air travel with passenger footfall growing steadily after months, gold smuggling cases have continued to surface.

In October, Customs officials seized 21 kg of gold worth over Rs 25 crore from an unclaimed consignment that was sent through courier, and did not have any supporting documents. Officials at the time said that it arrived from one of the Gulf countries and was headed to Mumbai.

That same week, two international passengers travelling from Dubai to Visakhapatnam and then Visakhapatnam to Hyderabad in the same flight were held, after they were found carrying four pieces of gold weighing 1.38 kg and valued at Rs 70.95 lakh, without any documentation. The gold was seized under provisions of the Customs Act, 1962.

After being shut in March due to the pandemic, GMR Hyderabad International Airport Ltd (GHIAL), which oversees the functioning of the RGIA, had resumed operations in May with COVID-19 safety protocols in place. 

Meanwhile, three more persons succumbed to COVID-19 while 518 new infections were reported in Telangana on Friday, health officials said. The fresh fatalities pushed the state's death tally due to the virus to 1,527. The number of active cases in the state is now 6,839 including 4,723 who are in home or institutional isolation.

With IANS and PTI inputs