3 held at KIA with gold hidden in rectum

Bengaluru: The Customs sleuths arrested three passengers who flew in with smuggled gold worth over Rs 29.3 lakh at Kempegowda International Airport (KIA).

The arrested are Mohamed SharKhan Zahir Hussain, Kaja Mydeen Mohamed Haroon and Ansari Mohammad Ibrahim.

The total quantity of gold paste concealed by the three was over 1.5 kg and they were also carrying gold rings and chain pieces worth 71gm. The total amount of gold seized was valued at Rs 29,27,905 in the market, informed sources.

It is gathered that Zahir, Haroon and Ibrahim had arrived in Bengaluru by Air India flight AI 994 on Friday, April 26. They were frisked with hand-held metal detectors and found to have concealed gold paste mix with an unknown chemical material in their rectum in plastic pouches wrapped in black insulation tape in pellet form.

Zahir and Haroon boarded the flight from Sharjah, while Ibrahim got on to the aircraft in Goa as a domestic passenger. Zahir handed over two pallets of the gold paste to Ibrahim and he concealed them in his rectum onboard the flight from Goa to Bengaluru.