Gold stolen from customs warehouse in Mumbai

Gold was allegedly stolen from the customs warehouse at the Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport. However, custom officials have filed a complaint of gold having got misplaced from the warehouse.

“The Sahar police station has received a complaint not of theft but of gold having got misplaced from the warehouse. The complaint application is not too detailed,” said additional commissioner Amitabh Gupta.

Sources told DNA that recently two bars of gold were found missing from the warehouse. “It is clearly a case of theft. However, not ready to take the blame, the officials are trying to pass it off as a missing case,” said a source. The consignment comprising seven packages of gold bars was kept in the DS-I custom warehouse at the airport. It belonged to a German passenger who is reportedly still unaware of the theft.

Last week, the officials on duty realised that one out of the seven packages had gone missing. The package, whose value is estimated to be Rs1.8 lakh, had two bars which weighed 45gm each.

Assistant commissioner (customs) Sameer Wankhede, who was reportedly on duty as the supervision officer when the gold went missing, said, “I am not aware of any such theft. It may not have happened during my duty or my batch. And possibly, it was not anything major considering I have not heard of it.”

However, the incident cannot be underestimated considering it is not often that a breach of security is reported at the customs warehouses. Officials, though, still seem to be unaware of how it happened in spite of the tight security.

“There are no CCTV cameras inside the warehouse. The footage from those at the entry and exit points is now being monitored to see who moved in and out of that space during that time,” the source said. Commissioner (customs) Pramod Gawande was unavailable for comments.