MANIPUR: PASSENGER SMUGGLING GOLD IN BUTTON FORM HELD AT IMPHAL AIRPORT

A passenger seeking to smuggling an amount of gold in the form of buttons was caught at Imphal Airport. Pradeep Kumar, a resident of Uttar Pradesh's Gorakhpur, was caught during pre-embarkation security check as he was going to board an Indigo flight to Kolkata. Each button was 1.5 gram gold coated with silver colour and a total of 120 buttons, comprising 180 grams of the precious metal, worth Rs 5 lakh approximately, were recovered from him. The new modus operandi was adopted to avoid detection of gold during screening of baggage. Kumar was later handed over to customs official in Imphal for further legal action.