Mangaluru: Officials of Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI), Mangaluru have arrested an aircraft maintenance technician working with Jet Airways at Mangaluru International Airport on Tuesday for alleged involvement in gold smuggling.
DRI was tipped off that gold would be smuggled through Mangalore International Airport by concealing gold bars inside the toilets of aircraft flying from Gulf countries to Mangaluru.
On arrival at Mangaluru, Lalbin Jeen, a maintenance staff of Jet Airways would board the aircraft under the pretext of maintenance work, retrieve the concealed gold bars and hand over the same to the agents of smugglers at a designated place in the city.
Acting on the intelligence, officers of DRI Mangaluru intercepted Jeen after he got down from the Jet Airways flight that had arrived from Dubai.
During interrogation he confessed to his guilt and produced two packets from the back pocket of his trousers containing 5 tola bars of gold each, which he admitted to were retrieved from the rear toilet of the said flight.
He also admitted that the smuggled gold was supposed to be handed over to an agent at the city centre mall in the evening and his remuneration for this entire work was fixed at Rs 20,000.
The smuggled gold, totally weighing 1166.5 gm, with a market value of around Rs 34.41 lakhs, was seized by the officers and is liable for confiscation for violation of the provisions of the Customs Act, 1962.
Jeen was produced before the Chief Judicial Magistrate, Mangaluru and remanded to judicial custody. Further investigation is in progress based on the leads provided by Jeen.
