Smuggling racket busted at KIA

Bengaluru: Smuggling racket was busted at Kempegowda International Airport (KIA) on Sunday.

The racket came to light when a man lodged a complaint of missing a bag and later walked in to the CISF Control Room with a police to check the CCTV footage regarding a missing bag containing mobiles, cash, and important documents from one of the baggage conveyor belts.

The sub inspector of the CISF got suspicious while and questioned Jidda Mohammad separately.

Mohammad later confessed that he and Jain were from Mysuru and were in the business of mobile phones.

Further probe revealed that Jain flew from Bangkok to Bhubaneswar and told Mohammad to be at Bhubaneswar to travel with him on the same flight to Bengaluru. The tickets were booked by Jain. The same aircraft that flies Bangkok-Bhubaneswar, further flies to Bengaluru as a domestic flight.

Mohammad told the CISF personnel that he had been used by Jain to smuggle gold in two previous instances. He said he was aware that some precious items would have been smuggled in by Jain this time too, and took his friend Kashif Khan from Mysuru to Bhubaneswar to help him double-cross Jain.

“Kashif travelled on the same flight. During this, Jain put four gold bars in Mohammad’s bag and kept the bag with him on the flight. While disembarking at Bengaluru, Jain handed over the bag to Mohammad and instructed him to return the bag to him outside the arrival hall, while Jain went to collect the registered baggage from the conveyor belt,” officials said.

In the meantime, Mohammad gave the bag containing gold bars to Kashif at the arrival hall, and the latter left with the bag. Mohammad informed Jain that the bag was missing at the arrival hall, and the latter lodged a complaint at the KIA police station, officials said.

His passport revealed that he had travelled to Bangkok 28 times since January, Hemendra Singh, Assistant Inspector-General of CISF, said.