Chennai Customs seize gold worth Rs 60 lakhs, arrest passenger and receiver

CHENNAI: Customs officials seized gold worth Rs 60 lakhs and arrested a passenger and the receiver at Chennai airport on Wednesday.

The passenger managed to escape from customs but was caught near the exit gate when he was involved in a quarrel with the receiver.

Govindaraju (23) of Kancheepuram arrived in Chennai from Singapore on Wednesday night.

Govindraju had smuggled gold valued at Rs 60 lakhs and he managed to escape from customs and reach the exit door.

Outside the exit gate, Kallis Ali (34) of Chennai who came to collect the gold asked Govindaraju to hand over the gold to him but the passenger said that already a person received the gold using his name.

Soon Kallis became angry and both of them started to fight inside the airport premises.

The security officers who noticed the incident took both of them to the airport police station and during the inquiry, the police found that Ali sent Govindaraju to Singapore a few days ago to smuggle the 850 grams of gold valued at Rs 60 lakhs.

Govindaraju after reaching Chennai kept the gold inside the baggage and tried to fool Ali and soon a quarrel broke out between them.

The airport police recovered the gold from Govindaraju's baggage and handed it to the customs officials.

Further, when checking his passport it was found that Govindaraju has travelled many times to Singapore, Dubai and Sri Lanka in the last two years.

The customs officials arrested both of them and further investigation is on.