Gold Worth ₹4.26 Crore Found Taped Inside IndiGo Lavatory at Ahmedabad

Customs officers at Ahmedabad's Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel International Airport seized 24 gold biscuits worth ₹4.26 crore on Friday, hidden inside a speaker box in an aircraft lavatory.

The haul came from IndiGo flight 6E-1478, which arrived from Dubai. News agency ANI reported the seizure on X, saying customs officials, working with aircraft engineers, found two pouches wrapped in black plastic tape inside the speaker box in the front lavatory.

The 24 foreign-origin gold biscuits, 999.0 purity (24 carat), weighed 2,799.3 grams. Local market value was pegged at ₹4,26,89,325.

This is a developing story. More details are expected.

The seizure follows a pattern of gold smuggling attempts through Indian airports, where concealment methods range from body carry to luggage modifications and aircraft hideouts. Ahmedabad has emerged as a frequent entry point for gold routed through Dubai, a major trading hub where Indian gold demand meets a price differential that makes smuggling profitable.

India's gold import duties, currently at 6% on bullion, create an arbitrage that smugglers exploit. The duty was cut from 15% to 6% in the July 2024 budget, narrowing the gap but not eliminating it. Domestic gold prices, driven by festival and wedding demand, still trade at a premium to international benchmarks after accounting for legal import costs.

Customs officials at Ahmedabad have made multiple seizures this year, often using sniffer dogs, baggage scanners, and intelligence-led searches. The involvement of aircraft engineers in this case suggests a targeted search based on specific information rather than random inspection.

IndiGo did not immediately comment on the seizure. The airline typically cooperates with customs investigations when contraband is found on its aircraft.

For traders tracking gold flows, the seizure is a reminder that physical gold demand in India remains strong despite high prices. The country imports roughly 700-800 tonnes of gold annually, making it the world's second-largest consumer after China. Any disruption to legal import channels tends to show up in smuggling data before official trade figures reflect it.