Air Intelligence Unit (AIU) of airport customs on Monday arrested two employees of Jet Airways, on charges of involvement in smuggling gold into the country, worth over Rs76 lakh.
Senior management officials at Jet airways whose employees are said to be involved, have been informed about the incident by AIU. A Jet airways spokesperson did not comment on the story.
The arrest, once again, brings into light the involvement of airport insiders in the gold smuggling syndicate, which is witnessing a boom with each passing day.
The arrests come days after Ramesh Bansode, an Air India employee, was arrested as he was waiting to receive Rs1.27 crore worth of gold bars from a passenger arriving from Dubai. An employee of a duty free shop and a loader were also arrested on similar charges earlier this month.
Talking about Monday's arrest, additional commissioner, AIU, Milind Lanjewar, said that the matter came to light when the accused, Mohammed Kunnil Abbas, who arrived from Dubai with gold bars worth above Rs76 lakh, sat in the arriving hall of the terminal to hand it over to someone. However, when no one arrived after a long time, Abbas tried to hoodwink the customs officials.
"However, our officials held him after deciding his behaviour to be suspicious" said Lanjewar.
The accused, during the questioning, confessed to carrying the gold. AIU officials then made him sit in the arrival hall again and dial the person who was supposed to collect the gold. "Our officials stood nearby, under disguise" added Lanjewar.
Puritan Singh, a load and trim staff of the airline, arrived and tried talking to Abbas in code language, but was soon held by AIU officials. Singh's supervisor, Hamed Mohammed, was also arrested later.
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