Mangaluru: An aircraft maintenance technician with Jet Airways was arrested by the sleuths of the DRI (Directorate of revenue intelligence) for his involvement in gold smuggling.
The accused was nabbed on 25th July, Tuesday at Mangalore International Airport (MIA). Smuggled gold weighing 1166.5 gms with a market value of around Rs 34.41 lakh was seized during the raid.
The raid was conducted by the sleuths acting on a tip off that gold was being smuggled through MIA. The bars will be concealed inside toilets of aircraft coming from Gulf countries
On receiving the information, they zeroed in on Lalbin Jeen, maintenance staff with Jet Airways who allegedly connived with smugglers and would board the aircraft on pretext of maintenance work and retrieve the concealed gold bars. They would then hand it over to agents of smugglers later at a pre-designated place in the city.
The sleuths arrived at the airport in the morning and kept a close watch on the movements of Jeen. They nabbed him after he alighted from Jet Airways flight 9W 531 that had arrived from Dubai.
The Jeen confessed during interrogation. He told that he was supposed to hand over the smuggled gold to an agent at a mall in the city in the evening.
The accused was remanded judicial custody after he was produced before the CJM. Further investigations are in progress.