Team News Riveting
Kochi, October 1
Crises amidst COVID-19 pandemic have been a strong driver for creativity and innovation. The passengers travelling to Kerala from gulf countries are no exception.
The only difference, they have been in the headlines for all wrong reasons when it comes to creativity. The modus operandi in smuggling gold in the southern state stands testimony to the innovation.
Taking advantage of wearing a mask compulsorily, a passenger made a vain attempt. He was arrested for attempting to conceal 40 grams of smuggled gold in his N-95 mask in Kerala.
The incident took place at the Kozhikode International Airport located in Karipur and the passenger who had flown in from the United Arab Emirates (UAE) has been arrested by the Air Intelligence Unit. According to reports, the smuggled gold worth Rs 2 lakh was retrieved from the passenger.
He is a native of Bhatkal in Karnataka and had flown into Kozhikode from Dubai.
This is not the one; Karipur airport has been witnessing such innovative incidents frequently. In early September, another passenger who had flown in from Jeddah in Saudi Arabia to Karipur, was caught smuggling gold worth more than 30 lakhs concealed inside a pressure cooker.
In September, over 1 kg of gold was seized by the Customs department in the Karipur airport within a span of two days from two passengers. While one arrived from Jeddah in Saudi Arabia another had flown in from Dubai.
The passengers had hidden the gold inside a speaker and the wheels of a trolley bag.
Above all, the smuggling of gold in the pretext of Holy Quran has stirred the political cauldron in Kerala. The custom has seized 30 kg of gold on July 5 from a diplomatic consignment sent from the UAE.
The leaders of the ruling Left parties had reportedly come under the scanner of investigating agencies as the consignment was initially called a stock of Holy Quran for free distribution in the state.
