The passenger was intercepted by intelligence staff for questioning.
Central Industrial Security Force personnel today caught a passenger with 6.4 kg gold, in paste form, at the Mumbai airport. The value of the seized gold paste is approx Rs 3 crore.
At about 2 pm, on the basis of behaviour detection, the CISF surveillance and intelligence staff at Terminal 2 of Mumbai's CSMI Airport noticed suspicious activities of a passenger who was sitting near the boarding gate sitting area. He was kept under electronic as well as physical surveillance.
"During surveillance, it was observed that he picked some item from the floor and put it in his bag," police said. After keeping the item in his bag, he went to the washroom situated near the smoking zone in the retail area, where he changed his clothes and came outside, they said.
On strong suspicion, the passenger was intercepted by intelligence staff for questioning. He was later identified as Sahul Hameed Mohamed Yusuf, who was supposed to travel from Mumbai to Coimbatore by a Vistara flight.
"On tactfully questioning, the passenger accepted the presence of gold in paste form in the pouch which he had received from an international passenger, who passed the item to him by throwing it over the glass sheet used to bifurcate domestic and international boarding gates area," the CISF said in a statement.
Later, Sahul Hameed Mohamed Yusuf, along with the yellow metal paste, was handed over to customs officials for further action.