The two of them were produced before a judicial magistrate and were remanded
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Chennai: A health ministry official was arrested by the directorate of revenue intelligence (DRI) officers at Tiruchy airport late Friday night for attempting to facilitate smuggling of 7 kg gold bars worth Rs 1.8 crore.
A 20-year-old passenger, M. Kaseem Navas Khan, of Ramanathapuram, who was carrying the gold bars from Singapore was also arrested. DRI sleuths were acting on specific inputs about a passenger ferrying gold from Singapore by the 22.50 Tiger Airways flight. A surveillance team, comprising the officers of DRI, customs and CI SF, was keeping a close watch on the passengers and intercepted Navas Khan before he could reach customs.
“The blue bag he was carrying as hand baggage had three gold bars of 1 kg each and 40 gold bars of 100 gms each,” an official communication read. Investigations with the passenger revealed that G. Natarajan, multi-tasking staff, airport health department, was supposed to receive the gold bars from him near the health check counter for Ebola virus in the immigration area, thereby abetting the smuggling.
Their modus operandi required the passenger to go to the table near the health check counter and leave the bag with gold bars there under the guise of health check for Ebola virus. After confirmation that the health officer was in possession of the gold, the passenger would walk through immigration and customs.
“As per the plan, Natarajan would relocate the gold bars from the bag into his health kit bag, thereby sneaking the gold out of the airport without customs clearance,” a DRI release said.
A similar empty blue bag was recovered from the health desk counter, which the health official admitted he received during a previous rendezvous with a smuggler, which turned out to be successful, the release added. The two of them were produced before a judicial magistrate and were remanded.
( Source : dc correspondent )
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