Gold Bars Worth N174m Found In Plane Toilet

Cleaners found a stash of 24 gold bars worth more
than $US1.1 million hidden in an airplane lavatory
after a flight from Bangkok landed in eastern India,
officials said.
The plane, belonging to private carrier Jet Airways,
was being cleaned at Kolkata airport after a trip
from the eastern city of Patna. Indian media
reported the plane had been travelling from
Bangkok.
“The cleaning staff of the airport were going though
their routine duties and found two bags in the
toilets of the plane,” said director of the airport
B.P. Mishra.
The 24 one-kilogram gold bars “have not been
claimed by anyone. No arrest has been made,”
senior customs official R.S. Meena said.
Meena estimated the value of the haul at about 70
million rupees, or $US1.1 million.
India, which rivals China as the world’s biggest gold
consumer, has witnessed a sharp rise in smuggling
since import duties were hiked three times this
year to dampen demand for the precious metal.
Gold is hugely popular in India, especially during
religious festivals and wedding seasons, and is the
second-biggest contributor after oil to India’s
massive current account deficit – the broadest
measure of trade.
The government has been seeking to reduce gold
demand and narrow its deficit by hiking bullion
import duties.
Indians also buy gold in the form of jewellery, bars
and coins as a hedge against inflation.
“This is the fifth (suspected gold smuggling) incident
in the past one month,” said BP Sharma, director of
Kolkata’s Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose
International airport.
“Smuggling of gold through the airport has risen” as
the hike in the import duty of gold has made the
metal costlier, Mr Sharma said.
Last month, intelligence officials recovered gold
worth 95 million rupees from the toilet of a plane
after it landed in the southern city of Chennai en
route to New Delhi from Dubai.
Four Sri Lankan nationals were held on smuggling
charges.
In August, customs officials seized smuggled gold
worth 11 million rupees from a passenger travelling
from Singapore to the Indian capital.
Thirty-one gold bars were found in specially-
designed pockets in the suspect’s trousers.
In Kolkata, a 28-year-old man flying to India from
Bangkok was recently arrested with gold bars
concealed in large torchlights, officials said.
In another incident, a man travelling to India from
Dubai was caught in Kolkata while trying to smuggle
five gold bars in his body, they added.