Airline stewardess caught for smuggling gold

Hyderabad, Apr 10: Customs sleuths on Wednesday nabbed two women, including an Emirates airline crew member, for trying to smuggle in a total of 15.7 kg gold worth Rs.4.53 crore at the RGI Airport.

In the first incident, sleuths nabbed Fatima Shaheen at 3.30 am when she landed at the airport via Qatar Airlines flight (QR 500) from Doha. The woman, hailing from the city, had hidden 2.7 kg of gold (two one kg bars and six 10-tola bars) among her clothes.

In the second incident, an off-duty flight stewardess employed with Emirates airlines was caught with 13 kg of gold (one kg bar each) when she landed at RGIA via an Emirates flight (EK 526) from Dubai at 10 am. She had concealed the gold in her hand baggage and had travelled as a normal passenger.

Despite the stewardess being caught red-handed, the customs sleuths did not reveal her name and other details. Despite repeated requests by the media, neither chief commissioner BB Prasad nor other senior staff including commissioner MK Singh revealed her identity. It was learnt by TOI that the secrecy was due to the fact that she hails from an 'influential' family in Maharashtra. Customs officials are now grilling both women to find out about the smuggling gang.

So far this year, the customs sleuths have seized 23 kg of gold worth Rs.6.6 crore in nine cases and arrested six offenders.