Bengaluru: Customs officers at the Kempegowda International Airport (KIAL) in Bengaluru have detained a 42-year-old gold smuggler, who was trying to hide the yellow metal in his mouth, sources in the airport told on Thursday.
The accused person is from Chennai and he landed at Bengaluru airport from Dubai on Wednesday evening. He had concealed two pieces of gold weighing 100 grams worth Rs 4.5 lakh.
The Air Intelligence Unit in Bengaluru customs intercepted the accused and questioned him. When they found the accused was struggling to talk, they checked his mouth and found gold pieces. The authorities have booked him for evading customs duty.
The authorities also found 15 gold pieces weighing more than 1 kilogram worth Rs 49.6 lakh in the private flight that he had travelled. The officers are investigating whether the same person had abandoned these gold pieces in the flight.
The flight landed in Bengaluru from Dubai on Wednesday. The accused person had told authorities that he had travelled to Dubai from Chennai on October 14. The customs department has taken up the case for further investigation to crack the network.
