83-year-old man becomes oldest to be caught smuggling gold

The air intelligence unit (AIU) of Mumbai airport has arrested an 83-year-old passenger for allegedly smuggling gold into the country. Apparently, Harjinder Singh Chhabra, who was travelling from Dubai and holds an Indian passport, is the oldest person to be caught in a gold smuggling case.

AIU intercepted Chhabra at the international airport on Tuesday and recovered gold bars weighing 676 gm, valued at Rs 1,969,357.

Upon following Chhabra, he was found entering the toilet cabin of the immigration counter’s washroom and gold was found concealed in a tissue box placed there. Officials followed him as he was behaving in a suspicious manner. An official said, “He is perhaps the oldest person caught smuggling gold at the airport”.

AIU suspect Chhabra may be working as a carrier for a gang operating from across the country.

“Two possibilities can be ruled out, that he might have had a doubt that we were following him after which he decided to abandon the gold in the toilet or this could have been the plan with the receiver to pick it up later,” said a high commanding AIU officer. Initially, Chhabra kept denying that the gold was wrapped in black carbon paper but confessed later on as he was carrying the same black carbon paper in his bag that was used in wrapping the gold in the toilet.