In one of the biggest gold hauls in recent past, CISF sleuths today apprehended four people, including an Air India loader, for allegedly smuggling in 19.5kgs of the yellow metal at Goa airport.
The value of the seized gold has been estimated at Rs 5.5 crore and customs authorities have detained all of them, a CISF spokesman said.
The incident occured in the wee hours when a Central Industrial Security Force officer noticed suspect dealings of a passenger with an airport staffer on the CCTV camera soon after an international flight from Doha landed, he said.
The CISF officer, officials said, saw the arriving passenger handing over a packet to the airport staffer.
Immediately, a CISF team intercepted the 30-year-old loader identified as Prakash M Manotgi who is posted at the Goa airport as ramp supervisor of Air India.
"A packet containing 19.5kg gold was recovered from Manotgi. On his directions, the passenger, along with two others who handed over the consignment to him, was apprehended and customs officials were informed," the spokesperson said.
The three passengers, identified as A Mohammed, I Hussain and M Mohammed, are being questioned as to how such a huge quantity of gold was brought by them without declaring it to the authorities in Doha.
The passengers hail from Maharashtra and Karnataka.
"This is one of the rare instances where such a huge quantity of smuggled gold has been recovered at an Indian airport," the officer said.
