A customs inspector at the Mumbai Airport was arrested for stealing 995 grams of gold coins valued at ₹34 lakh from the customs warehouse. The accused, Uday Singh Gurjar, stole the gold coins prior to being transferred to another location this April. Gurjar was booked under the provisions of the Indian Penal Code for criminal breach of trust by a public servant.
The gold was brought to India by an American citizen Jeffrey Holmes Harrissin on January 13, 2020. The individual wasn’t allowed to carry the gold beyond the airport since he hadn’t paid the necessary customs duty. The gold was then stored in the detention room of the customs warehouse. Detained items are kept here so that flyers can take them back with them while returning to their home country.
Read - Navi Mumbai Airport Rename Row: Project Affected People Protest Outside CIDCO Office
Gurjar planned the theft of the gold kept in a safe at the detention room as Harrissin hadn’t returned to collect the gold for over a year. Following the revelation, Gurjar was suspended from work while a departmental inquiry was initiated.
Two more individuals arrived in India with Harrissin, who had their gold coins stored in the same customs facility. The three were given a detention receipt that was to be shown when leaving the country to get back their belongings.
“While the two other US nationals collected their gold from the warehouse after returning the receipt, Gurjar had marked an arrow in the register to show that Harrissin too had collected his 995gms of gold,” a Sahar police officer said.
“The gold was in the safe till March but went missing in April. The theft came to light after Harrissin filed an FIR with the police on not being allowed to collect his gold on July 3, and an inquiry was carried out by the Airport Customs,” the officer added.
Upon discovering the lost gold, customs initially said that the gold had been collected by Harrissin. However, the truth came to light when Harrissin showed the detention receipt for his items. Gurjar was found to be the culprit after customs officials inspected the electronic records.
“The customs recovered the gold from Gurjar and handed it over to Harrissin after taking a written note acknowledging that he had received his valuables,” the police said. Gurjar was in police custody for three days and was then sent to judicial custody.
Also read - Bombay HC Asks Mumbai Customs To Release Feeding Tubes Imported By Cancer Survivor
Share
Tweet
