A couple of days after a senior airport manager attached with GVK was held along with two others for attempting to smuggle gold bars worth Rs40 lakh, a technical supervisor working for an advertising space company attached with the airport was held on Sunday for indulging in a similar offence, amounting to over Rs45 lakh.
A technical supervisor, identified as Aniket Oroskar, was apprehended after he received 16 gold bars valued at over Rs45.5 lakh from a passenger, Mohammed Khalandanesha Abdullah, who arrived from Dubai on a Spicejet flight.
The handover of the consignment happened near the bay toilet of the newly constructed Terminal 2. Oroskar told his interrogators about having indulged in similar crimes at least 22 times previously. Abdullah, who was also arrested, allegedly confessed to smuggling gold in a similar manner 6 times.
City airport officials refused to comment on the issue. On Friday, in a joint operation between the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) and Air Intelligence Unit (AIU) of airport customs, Kanumetta Jagadish Babu, who worked as terminal manager with GVK, was arrested. He had received a consignment of 14 gold bars from a passenger named Shahbaz Khan, who arrived from Sharjah.
Babu confessed to receiving between Rs30,000 per kg smuggled. He was to receive the gold and hand it over to one Shaikh Mohsin, who was stationed at the domestic terminal of the airport. Investigators learned that Babu would leave T2 via the shuttle bus service and exit the airport through domestic terminal.
In the past few months, at least 13 cases of airport and airline staff involvement in gold smuggling, have come to light. The total seizure has so far been around 37kgs of gold. Some prominent cases include the arrest of an Air India crew member, two Jet airways staff and a supervisor with A to Z; a ground handling agency.
Experts point out that the reason for such a large number of insiders getting lured into the gold smuggling syndicate, is because of the easy money. It comes with a bit of hoodwinking security agencies, who mainly keep eyes on arriving passengers.
However, Kiran Kumar, assistant commissioner, AIU informed: "We have been keeping a close eye even on airport insiders." AIU data reveals that till November 14, about 737 kgs of gold have been seized at CSIA, as against 92 kgs up to November last year.
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