Air India crew members smuggle gold!

[vgane]

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This is the worst thing that can happen to the State carrier..On account of a few black sheep the career's name gets spoilt..Hope timely action is taken and culprits nailed

Air India crew members smuggling gold: Customs



February 11, 2015

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CNN-IBN reports: In yet another major embarassment for national carrier Air India, some of its crew members are alleged to have smuggled gold in the flight.


In a letter by the Customs Air Intelligence unit the department has highlighted serious lapses in the customs clearance by the Air India crew. The letter was sent to the Executive Director of western region of Air India on February 10.


The letter talks about instances of 'smuggling of gold' by Air India crew members Nihal Prajapati and Sidhesh Patil.


It highlights how an Air India crew member was caught while smuggling 3 kilos of gold valued at Rs 78.1 lakh when he was operating domestic flight AI-012 on the Mumbai-Ahmedabad route.

Air India crew members smuggling gold: Customs

 

[zebra16]

This is the worst thing that can happen to the State carrier..On account of a few black sheep the career's name gets spoilt..Hope timely action is taken and culprits nailed

Air India crew members smuggling gold: Customs



February 11, 2015

---

CNN-IBN reports: In yet another major embarassment for national carrier Air India, some of its crew members are alleged to have smuggled gold in the flight.


In a letter by the Customs Air Intelligence unit the department has highlighted serious lapses in the customs clearance by the Air India crew. The letter was sent to the Executive Director of western region of Air India on February 10.


The letter talks about instances of 'smuggling of gold' by Air India crew members Nihal Prajapati and Sidhesh Patil.


It highlights how an Air India crew member was caught while smuggling 3 kilos of gold valued at Rs 78.1 lakh when he was operating domestic flight AI-012 on the Mumbai-Ahmedabad route.

Air India crew members smuggling gold: Customs

Can you please clarify how transporting 3 kilos of gold while on a domestic flight on the Mumbai - Ahmedabad route is **smuggling**?

Is there any restriction of movement of gold within the country to equate it with smuggling?

 

[cmano1981]

yes, could not understand! no offence carrying anything non-dangerous in domestic flights. Also our customs requirement are so fluid and many commoners carry gold and often pray they should not be caught by customs. Customs officers also target specific flights coming from Dubai, singapore for gold....

 

[vgane]

Can you please clarify how transporting 3 kilos of gold while on a domestic flight on the Mumbai - Ahmedabad route is **smuggling**?

Is there any restriction of movement of gold within the country to equate it with smuggling?

In this case, the crew might have traveled from Dubai to Ahmedabad via Mumbai and got caught in Mumbai-Ahmedabad sector..As per custom notification dated march 1 2013 notification no. 25/2013, limit for Gold has been increased from Rs. 10000 to Rs. 50000 for men and from Rs. 20000 to Rs. 1, 00,000 for female passengers. That means anyone coming from say Dubai can just get 2.5 to 5 sovereigns of Gold

​

 

[vgane]

Now the actual story below:

An Air India crew member was arrested on Thursday while he was trying to clear 6.8 kg of smuggled gold, worth R1.5 crore, from the international airport. Sidhesh Patil had arrived from Muscat in flight AI 986 at around 5.35 am, and was waiting for the smuggler, a passenger from another airline, near the T2 arrivals.



The passenger, Piyush Jasraj Soni, was flying by Oman Air’s WY 201 from Muscat, which landed around the same time as Patil’s. After arriving at the airport, Soni handed over the gold to Patil to get it cleared out of the airport premises. Acting on a tip-off, a team from the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) intercepted the duo.


The gold, concealed in handbags, was in the form of gold bars (6 kg) and gold chains (800 grams). The exchange had been planned near the Immigration area of T2. Speaking to mid-day, Air India’s spokesperson said, “We immediately suspended the accused crew member caught by the intelligence agency.”

Mumbai Crime: Air India crew member caught smuggling gold

 

[zebra16]

Now the actual story below:

An Air India crew member was arrested on Thursday while he was trying to clear 6.8 kg of smuggled gold, worth R1.5 crore, from the international airport. Sidhesh Patil had arrived from Muscat in flight AI 986 at around 5.35 am, and was waiting for the smuggler, a passenger from another airline, near the T2 arrivals.



The passenger, Piyush Jasraj Soni, was flying by Oman Air’s WY 201 from Muscat, which landed around the same time as Patil’s. After arriving at the airport, Soni handed over the gold to Patil to get it cleared out of the airport premises. Acting on a tip-off, a team from the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) intercepted the duo.


The gold, concealed in handbags, was in the form of gold bars (6 kg) and gold chains (800 grams). The exchange had been planned near the Immigration area of T2. Speaking to mid-day, Air India’s spokesperson said, “We immediately suspended the accused crew member caught by the intelligence agency.”

Mumbai Crime: Air India crew member caught smuggling gold

Thank you for this message. The CNN-IBN report earlier linked only said Tirupathi---Motta thalai . I could not make anything out of that.