Customs officials at Chennai Airport on Wednesday seized 4.6 kg gold worth about Rs 1.90 crore hidden in two aeroplanes.
In a statement issued here, the Commissioner of Customs in the Chennai International Airport said based on information that gold was likely to be smuggled through flights arriving from Abu Dhabi, Etihad Airways flight EY-268 which arrived from Abu Dhabi was subjected to a search on Wednesday.
According to the statement, the customs officers recovered two bundles wrapped with adhesive tape concealed underneath the cushion of one of the seats.
On opening the bundles, the officers recovered two 1 kg gold bars with foreign marking and two gold rectangular plates and four gold cut bars totally weighing 3.99 kg valued at Rs. 1.65 crore.
The customs officers again hit gold in Indigo Airlines flight 6E-054 which arrived from Singapore.
During a search, a cloth pouch was found concealed inside hollow pipe of one of the seats.
On opening the pouch, three gold cut bits, totally weighing 600 grams valued at Rs 25.52 lakh was recovered.
Since there were no claimants to claim the ownership of the recovered gold from both the flights, the same was seized as "unclaimed" under the provisions of Customs Act, 1962, the statement said.
