Mumbai/Mangaluru: The Air Intelligence Unit (AIU) of Customs seized 8 kg gold worth Rs 2 crore from two rear toilets of a Jet Airways flight at Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport (CSIA) on Saturday.
The officials also arrested a passenger, identified as Segu Naina Mohamed Shektheen Sha, in connection with the case.
Officials said that they had got specific input that 8 gold bars of 1 kg each were concealed from the two rear toilets of the Jet Airways 9W-539 Muscat to Mumbai.
The accused, according to the Custom officials, confessed that he kept the gold inside the toilets and it was to be retrieved during the domestic leg of the flight, when it would fly to Kolkata.
"We had information and also intercepted passenger Segu Naina Mohamed Shektheen Sha. He admitted concealment inside the toilet and said that the gold was to be retrieved during the domestic leg of the flight, when it would fly to Kolkata," said an official from the Air Intelligence Unit.
According to AIU officials, Segu had dropped the gold bars into dustbins inside the toilets and afterwards someone used a screwdriver to conceal the gold bars in the toilets to ensure that no one can notice it.
The officials suspect involvement of flight crew members in the case and are inquiring about it.
Gold worth Rs 60 lakh seized from aircraft toilet in Mangaluru
Officials of the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence seized gold bars worth Rs 60 lakh from an airraft's toilet at the International Airport here on Saturday.
Acting on a tip-off that gold of foreign origin was concealed by a passenger in the aircraft, to be retrieved later by a domestic passenger boarding at Mangaluru, DRI officers searched the flight coming from Dubai to Mangaluru, airport officials said.
The 22 gold bars were found concealed in the rear toilet in two packets, approximately valued at Rs 60 lakh, they said.
In April, officials recovered two cut pieces of gold bars worth Rs 24.68 lakh from the toilet of a Dubai-Mumbai flight and another 1.8kg of gold in the form of 16 gold bars from under a seat of a Doha-Mumbai plane. In February, an international flight departing to Muscat was detained by Mumbai Customs and 6kg gold worth Rs 1.49 crore was recovered from the toilets.
