Lucknow, Feb 25 Customs officials at Lucknow Airport on Friday arrested five persons for smuggling gold worth Rs 1.31 crore.
A customs official said that the arrested included three passengers who had flown in from Dubai.
"On specific information, the customs team intercepted three persons and searched them. During their personal search, packets of gold paste totally weighing 3,093 grams were recovered. These were cleverly concealed inside the belt area and inner side of the jeans worn by the two passengers. The third passenger was identified by both the passengers as their handler," said a customs official.
The official said that the gold paste resulted in recovery of 2,497 grams of standard gold worth Rs 1,31,09,250.
During the course of interrogation, the handler admitted that he was supposed to hand over the gold paste along with the two passengers to two aides who were waiting for them outside the airport.
These two were also identified and taken into custody. All the five persons were placed under arrest under the Customs Act and the recovered gold was seized.
All the accused were taken to a nearby government hospital for a Covid test, and after it came out negative, they were produced before a court, which sent them to 14 days judicial custody after officials said that they were not required for further interrogation.
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