Man carrying 8000 valuable stones nabbed at NSCBI airport

Kolkata, Jan 25 (UNI) Customs officials at the NSCBI airport detained a person carrying 8000 pieces of valuable stones on his arrival from Bangkok on a Thai Airways flight last night.

Mohammed Khan(34), a resident of Jaipur, Rajasthan, had hidden the stones in the pockets of his inner pant, an officials said.

According to customs law a passenger was allowed to import valuable stones worth Rs 5 lakhs only.

Customs officials suspected that the stones were valued more and summoned a government authorised jeweller to evaluate the actual value.

The jeweller, however, valued the stones at Rs 2 lakh only after which the passenger was released this afternoon, after nine hours of detention. Dissatisfied, the customs are keeping the stones for a fresh valuation by another jeweller.

The passenger was fined for not declaring to the customs officials the stones he was carrying and hiding them, which was illegal.

UNI XC KK AM HT2044