Gold bars worth Rs 52 lakh seized

Kolkata: Customs department officers at Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose International Airport have seized smuggled gold bars worth nearly Rs 52 lakh in the Indian currency from a passenger who had arrived in the city from Bangkok on

Tuesday night.

According to a source in the Air Intelligence Unit (AIU), around two kg gold was seized from the passenger at the airport.

The accused Vinod Kumar Parekh was intercepted by the customs officials at the airport when he was trying to cross the green channel. According to the AIU, gold bars weighing around 2 kg were recovered from the accused's bag.

Two cigarette packets were also recovered from his pocket, police said.

Police are investigating if the accused had been involved in smuggling of gold earlier.

According to preliminary investigation, police suspect that there were attempts to smuggle gold bars in the city from Bangkok because the price of gold in India is higher than that of in Bangkok.

In a few previous occasions, the AIU and customs had seized huge amount of gold. In most of the cases, there were attempts to smuggle gold into the city from Bangkok or Dubai.

The Bidhannagar police have started a detailed probe into the incident.

They are investigating if the accused had an intention to sell the gold bars in the Indian market or he planned to hand it over them to some other persons.