7 kg declared gold seized by Customs at airport, claim Lankans

CHENNAI: Two days after the airport customs claimed recovering 9 kg of gold from an aircraft that arrived from Dubai and toilet of the airport, five Sri Lankans have written to higher authorities via a lawyer, claiming the gold.

The Lankans said they had declared the gold while boarding at Dubai and were on their way to Colombo. They also alleged that the gold was extorted by Customs officers, confining them inside the aircraft. They are not planning to leave India without getting the gold back, the lawyer said.

The communication to the chairman of the Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs by Advocate S Zahir Hussain said all the five passengers had landed at Chennai airport on June 2 on their way to Colombo with gold bars weighing 1,399 gm each along with invoices. “They were taken back to the aircraft by Customs officers after taking away their passports and mobile phones. They were carrying 6.984 kg of declared gold and were in Chennai as transit passengers. When my clients refused to part with the gold, the Customs officials assaulted them. They are answerable only to Lankan customs as the gold bars were bound for Colombo,” claimed the lawyer adding they are still sitting at the transit area of the airport.

One of the Lankans, Shahul Hamadn Ihsahul Haq told DT Next: “The Customs officials, after taking us to the aircraft, removed our clothes and punched us when we refused to part with the gold. I am a gold businessman. I was not smuggling gold. They kept us in the flight for 5 hours before taking us to the transit area and never returned the gold.”

When contacted, a senior airport customs officer maintained that the entire gold was seized from the lavatories of the aircraft and from the Chennai airport toilet.

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