Sleuths of Directorate of Revenue Intelligence, Mangaluru, on Wednesday seized 349.8 g of gold allegedly being smuggled into India by a passenger who had concealed the yellow metal in his rectum.
In a release here, DRI Deputy Director Vinayak Bhat said that Revenue Intelligence personnel intercepted Chattanchal Abdul Razak (49), resident of Kasaragod, Kerala, on his arrival at the international airport here from Dubai by a SpiceJet flight [SG 60] at 4.30 p.m.
The officials had credible information that an attempt would be made to smuggle gold into India by the passenger.
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Upon thorough interrogation and examination, Razak revealed that he had concealed four gold bars inside his rectum, which was later removed after taking advice from medical professionals, Mr. Bhat said.
The bold bars weighed 349.8 g and are valued at about ₹ 10.5 lakh. It was seized by DRI under the provisions of Customs Act 1962.
Mr. Bhat said that the passenger admitted that he was a regular in the “business”. His passport revealed that he had been frequently landing at various airports, including Mangaluru, Mumbai, Delhi, Ahmedabad, Chennai, Kochi, Thiruvananthapuram, Kozhikode, Bengaluru, Goa and Lucknow.
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Razak also revealed that he conceived the ingenious way of smuggling gold into the country by secreting it inside his rectum as he knew that the Customs Check at airports would concentrate mainly on baggage screening and frisking.
Further investigation in the case is in progress.