Six kg gold seized from IGI Airport washrooms in last two months

Mangalore Today News Network

New Delhi, September 2, 2014: A great gold flush is on in the toilets of the Terminal 3 arrival area at Indira Gandhi International Airport.

 

In the past two months, security agencies have recovered gold worth crores from these public conveniences. The Central Industrial Security Force (CISF), which handles security at IGIA, says it has recovered almost 6 kg gold worth more than Rs.1.75 crore in this period, all from the Terminal 3 toilets.

The toilets are being used by inbound smugglers as a place to leave the gold where it is picked later by an accomplice, almost always an airport employee.

It’s a lucrative proposition, for every kg of gold smuggled in nets the carrier about Rs.4 lakh. And it’s got so bad that the CISF, Customs as well as Intelligence have had to depute officials to keep an eye on the goings-on in these toilets.

Closed Circuit TVs in the area have been repositioned to cover the bathrooms better and the movements of passengers using them. Their focus has also been changed to get the best possible images of potential wrongdoers. At least two security men are tasked to monitor these bathrooms at any given time.

"We have deployed various CISF staff in uniform as well as in civil dress at nearby areas of toilets. Also we are keeping a strict surveillance of passengers, especially those coming from West Asia, going to the toilet just after entering the airport. We have also made arrangements to keep a check on airport staff as well. Our main concern is to secure Delhi Airport," CISF Public Relations Officer Hemendra Singh told MAIL TODAY.

Surveillance
The heightened surveillance is beginning to yield results-and gold. How much is getting through is anybody’s guess but significant quantities are seized regularly. "We have been noticing that toilets of Terminal 3 have become a meeting-cum-transit point for gold smugglers.

Various airport staffers, including loaders and cleaners have been found involved in the racket. Toilets have become an exchange point as there is no CCTV installed inside them," a senior CISF official.

It was only last week that CISF personnel found a mobile phone left behind in a toilet. When they tried to turn it on, they found that power button was unusually hard. The device was scanned, and when it was opened a gold biscuit worth Rs.40 lakh was discovered occupying the entire space inside the shell. Analysis of CCTV footage later did not help pinpoint the person responsible.

Other toilet-friendly means adopted by the new gold smugglers to dump their contraband are trash items like paper wrappings and empty cigarette packets.

Method
The CISF is aware that there could be other methods at work.

"There are many ways," says a CISF official, describing the basic modus operandi thus: "A passenger who reaches Delhi airport with gold visits a predecided airport toilet, where they hide packets of gold in dustbin or any other area of toilet.

The airport staffer accomplice knows where it is and picks it up for planned delivery outside the airport area." Among the recent arrests was a staffer of a private ground handling company who yielded 1.2 kg of gold.

According to a CISF official, surveillance staff noticed Chandan Kumar, a loader of the private company, roaming around suspiciously at the international arrival pier of Terminal 3 in the early hours of the day. He was also seen interacting with a passenger who had arrived from Bahrain. They both walked into a bathroom and then went into another continuing their conversation. The CISF personnel followed the passenger, and the team recovered 1.2 kg gold from Chandan.

If a person does not declare gold on arrival in India, he or she can be arrested, depending on the value of the gold he is carrying. Currently any person caught with gold valued at less than Rs.20 lakh is not arrested. Bringing in undeclared gold worth more than Rs.20 lakh is an offence under Section 135 of the Customs Act. Such cases are investigated by customs, the accused being produced in the court of the Magistrate (Economic Offences). A conviction results in imprisonment for a year or less. Repeat offenders face imprisonment that can extend to seven years.

According to a Directorate of Revenue Intelligence official, the threefold increase in import duty on gold has resulted in its smuggling going up 400 per cent. Almost 700 kg of gold is smuggled into India every year.

 

Courtesy: Indiatoday