The Air Customs Intelligence wing at Karipur seized smuggled-in gold valued at Rs.1 crore on Friday.
The seizure was made in two instances related to the Air Arabia flight G9-454 which arrived from Sharjah at 3.30 a.m. Gold bars weighing 1.597 kg were seized from a passenger and two kilograms of gold was recovered from the toilet waste of the flight.
Siddik Vellarakunnummel, 29, from Vavad, near Koduvally, was arrested by the Customs authorities. The gold was found hidden inside an LED emergency lamp and an SJ power bank (mobile battery recharger). While a gold bar weighing 1 kg was found hidden in the emergency lamp, three pieces weighing 597 gm were recovered from the power bank.
Customs officers said his roommate Muneer, 27, from Ottappalam had handed him a carton containing the emergency lamp and the power bank by offering him Rs.40,000. Siddik was to hand over the carton to one Gafoor who was to collect it after handing over the contract amount. In the second case, the Customs officers recovered two gold bars weighing two kilos when they scanned the toilet waste of the Air Arabia flight.
Four cleaning employees of the Air Arabia flight were questioned.