The airport Customs, on Wednesday booked a senior Air India airline pilot in a case for smuggling gold worth rupees 15-lakh. The airport customs interrogated and investigated the pilot and all his related links and then allowed him to go.
The accused pilot on Wednesday had piloted Jeddah to Mumbai Air India flight and landed at CST international airport. He had hidden the gold in his baggage. In his statement to the Customs, he sid, “I was working with Air India since the last 20 years and my present monthly salary is Rs 5.5 lakh.”
A senior customs official stated, “We were observing the baggage scanner at the airport when it indicated a suspicious item in one of the bags. An officer put a cross mark on it to alert his colleagues to keep a close watch on the bag, which led them to the pilot.”
When the baggage crossed the scanning, the pilot came forward to collect it and erased the cross mark which was made by the customs officials with the help of a handkerchief without knowing that the customs officials are keeping an eye on him. While he was walking out of the airport area, the Customs officials stopped him to interrogate about the suspecious object.
The pilot said that in his baggage, he is carrying dry fruits packets which someone gave him in Jeddah and asked him to give to his relatives here in Mumbai. Officials could not believe him and asked him to show what he has got in his bag. When checked, they found around 7 gold bars concealed inside the dry fruit packet. The pilot to his rescue informed the officials that he didn’t know that the dry fruit packets contain the gold bars.
“We didn’t believe in his story. We kept his phone with us, but no one called him to collect the parcel. He tried to mislead us with the help of a fake story. We got some other clues in the case and inquiring about it,” said an officer.
