Assistant Immigration Officer Balaji Bhaskar at the Tiruchi International Airport has been placed under suspension consequent to his arrest on the charge of possessing smuggled gold biscuits on Thursday.
An order placing Mr. Balaji Bhaskar under suspension was issued by the Foreigner Regional Registration Officer, Chennai, after the issue was conveyed to the authorities concerned, airport sources told The Hindu .
The Customs Air Intelligence Unit (AIU) arrested the official after he was allegedly found in possession of 1.5 kilograms of gold biscuits that was passed on to him by a passenger Sadiq Ali upon arrival from Kuala Lumpur by an Air Asia flight.
The sources said separate notice would be served to the immigration official and the arrested passenger by Customs authorities in due course of time as a case had been booked against them.
The seized gold biscuits numbering 15 has been deposited at the safe vault in the Tiruchi Customs Office, the sources further said adding that investigation was on in this case.
Gold seizures have been reported at regular intervals at the Tiruchi airport which has direct flight connectivity to Colombo, Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, Dubai and Sharjah every day.
Several passengers were arrested on the charge of smuggling gold in different forms.
The Air Intelligence Unit of the Customs had booked 55 cases of gold seizures in the first quarter of the current financial year. Around eight kilograms of smuggled gold valued at ₹ 2.4 crore were seized from April till June in the current fiscal, sources said.
Gold was smuggled by adopting various modus operandi.
Over 90 gold seizure cases were reported at the Tiruchi airport during the 2016-17 with the total quantity being a little over 20 kilograms. The value of the seized gold was over ₹6 crore.
