KALPETTA: The vigil of excise department personnel trapped a youth, with 82 sovereigns of gold, who had successfully evaded the scanner of security officials at Goa and Bengaluru airports.
The excise team during the routine check in interstate buses from Bengaluru took into custody the youth at the Excise check-post at Muthanga on Wednesday night. The person was identified as Manas M, 24, son of Abdul Rassack, a native of Vavad, Thamarassery. The accused was travelling to Koduvally near Kozhikode in a private bus. The 654 grams of gold in liquid form was kept in a polythene packet hidden in a secret pocket stitched on the innerwear.
According to excise officials, Mr Manas was returning from Qatar through the Goa airport and he reached Bengaluru in another domestic flight, from where he boarded the bus to Kozhikode. The smuggling was for a gang operating at Koduvally, according to sources. The gold was hidden as liquid, to evade spotting during the routine scanning at airports, excise officials said.
Excise inspector Amal Rajan, preventive inspectors KB Baburaj and Shiju MC among others were in the team. The accused was handed over to police.
