Pune: Women who were arrested in the past while smuggling gold at the Pune airport used various methods to do so. However, four women on Wednesday were caught smuggling gold using a bizarre modus operandi.
They had concealed gold in their anus. This is first such case, where women passengers were involved in concealing gold in the anus. In all, 2,036.39 gm gold worth Rs 66.50 lakh was recovered from them.
The Spice Jet SG 52 flight arrived from Dubai at Pune airport. When the passengers were going through screening, the high quality scanner detected four women identified as Khawala Elhadi Ahmed Amara, Mawahib Masri Ahmed Adam, Salma Salah Mohamedahmed Yassin and Manal Eltayeb Abdalla Mohammed having hidden something inside their bodies. A woman officer stopped them and asked them to undergo the check again. They said that they had not hidden anything and accused officers of harassing them.
Deputy Commissioner of Customs KR Ramarao said, “The 24K gold recovered from the passengers weighed 2036.39 gms and was valued at Rs 66,50,779. Cases of rectum concealment were reported at the Pune airport earlier also in which male passengers were involved. However, this is the first case, where women passengers were involved in rectum concealment for gold smuggling.”
The gold recovered from the passengers was seized under the reasonable belief that the same was attempted to be smuggled into India. Hence, it was liable for confiscation under provisions of the Customs Act 1962. In their statement recorded uder section 108 of the Act, the passengers admitted possession, carriage, concealment and recovery of the said goods under seizure. Further investigation was in progress.
However, a source from the Customs said, “During the checking, the women said they did not hide anything. They tried to divert attention of the security officers, they were flaunting heavy jewellery. When our lady officer asked them to re-check, they alleged harassment.”
They said, “During the interrogation, the women were not giving satisfactory answers and officials’ suspicion increased.”
“This is the first such case. Smugglers hide gold inside their body in organs such as intestine, stomach and anus. It never occurred to us that women would be involved in this type of smuggling. Medical examination of the passengers was also conducted at Sasoon General Hospital,” the source revealed.
