Mumbai: The airport customs at Mumbai international airport arrested a senior superintendent engineer of Air India while he was attempting to smuggle cut pieces of gold bars worth Rs 44.10 lakh.
The said airline employee was arrested soon after he left from the aerobridge in the intervening night of Tuesday and Wednesday.
The accused was identified as Janardan Kondvilkar, 58, who has been working with the airline since several years.
The air intelligence unit (AIU) officials had been working on a modus involving airport support staffers mediating into the smuggling activity aiding in passing on the smuggled gold to the receivers outside the airport.
Kondvilkar was on a night duty and was supposed to conduct the technical checks while the air plane was parked at taxing bay before it took off for its next journey, AIU officials said.
“Following a specific input, we spotted Kondvilkar while exiting the aerobridge and intercepted him.
When we frisk searched him, we found the cut pieces (8 in all) that he was carrying. He was on his way to hand them over to another receiver,” said an AIU officer, requesting anonymity.
Following preliminary interrogation, Kondvilkar revealed the name of the receiver as Jagdish Rawal, who was waiting for the accused outside the terminal.
