Bangalore:
In a major seizure, 54 kg of gold worth Rs 16.5 crore was recovered from three persons at Kempegowda international airport in Bangalore, police said today.
The three accused were arrested late yesterday after a fellow passenger on a flight from Kolkata informed police that the accused were carrying a huge cache of gold in their bags, Deputy Commissioner of Police (Crime) Abhishek Goel said.
The arrested have been identified as Balasubramanya, Ravi Varma R and Ishwar Murthy, all hailing from Tamil Nadu.
The trio during interrogation claimed that they were gold merchants and had bought the gold from a bank in Mumbai, the DCP said.
Police found that they were not carrying relevant documents in support of the quantity of gold in their possession, he added.
On arresting them, police got in touch with Kolkata police who had arrested one person, said to be an associate of the trio, Goel said, adding, two police officials from Kolkata arrived today to interrogate them.
Goel did not rule out involvement of "big hands" in this case.