After a lull of over six months, the flow of black market bullion from abroad seems set for a revival because of the festival season demand.
“The intake by jewellers will going to pick up during Deepavali, which in turn, will trigger yet another bout of big-time gold smuggling,” said K.N. Raghavan, Commissioner, Cochin Customs.
The officer pointed to the back-to-back seizures by the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence in New Delhi and Imphal, in addition to another one from Thiruvananthapuram over the past couple of weeks.
In view of this, the department has intensified searching of aircraft touching down at the Kerala airports from abroad, in addition to surveillance of passengers. “Though the seizures from New Delhi and Imphal were from outside the airports, the cases reported here are mostly aircraft-centric. So we have initiated additional measures to plug this route,” Mr. Raghavan added.
Gold smuggling through Kerala airports had slowed down since March this year with the jewellers protesting against the Union government’s introduction of one per cent duty on the yellow metal. This cut sales and boosted inventories, making smuggling unprofitable.
Rs.1 crore
On Sunday, Air Intelligence sleuths at the Nedumbassery airport seized assorted gold jewellery weighing 3.6 kilograms, valued Rs.1 crore from an Indigo aircraft that landed here from Dubai. Soon after the passengers disembarked,
Customs officials searched the aircraft and recovered packages containing necklaces studded with Zircon stones, chains, ear rings etc. from its rear toilet.
Officials said one person had brought the gold from Dubai to Kochi and concealed it inside the toilet panel.
The location of the consignment would be then passed on to another person who would take the same flight to its next leg to Chennai and take out the ornaments.
Domestic flights and their passengers are usually not subjected to strict checking and the racket was attempting to capitalise on this loophole, he said, adding that a follow-up investigation was on to trace the person who had carried the packet into the aircraft.
