Gold worth over Rs 10 lakh seized at Bhubaneswar airport

Bhubaneswar: The Customs officials today seized gold worth Rs 10.56 lakh from two passengers who arrived at Biju Patnaik International Airport in Bhubaneswar from Kuala Lumpur.

The cylindrical gold bars weighing 340 grams were seized from two Indian origin passengers. Sources said that the seized gold was being smuggled from Kuala Lumpur to Chennai via Bhubaneswar.

Both the passengers were detained after the officials found their activities suspicious upon their arrival at the airport here. The gold was recovered from their baggage after a thorough checking, sources said.

It is the first major seizure of gold in the past one month.

Sources said that there was a sharp decline in the number of seizures of smuggled gold following an intensive crackdown by officials of Customs Department at Bhubaneswar airport.