No pain, no gain. This saying was taken quite literally by a 40-year old driver from Ahmednagar.

On receiving information that he was involved in smuggling, customs officials intercepted him at the Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport (CSIA) on Tuesday night, but failed to find anything on him.

However, after he was taken to a hospital and a body search was conducted, they found that he had concealed something inside his rectum.

The passenger was then given a laxative and forced to drop down the consignment, which turned out to be precious stones and diamonds.

Assistant commissioner of the Air Intelligence Unit of customs department, Sameer Wankhede said they caught Zakir Tamboli as soon as his Dubai-Bahrain-Mumbai flight landed at CSIA.

Customs officials questioned him for five hours. While Tamboli revealed nothing, the officials could not find anything his possession either.

The officials said that they did not let him go as the tip-off they received was confirmed.

Following this, with permission from a magistrate, Tamboli was taken to a government hospital for a body scanning, where examination of his private parts revealed that he had concealed a thumb-sized foreign object in his rectum.

Tamboli was then given a laxative and asked to eject the object from his body. The customs officials ensured that the object, which turned out to be precious stones and diamonds, did not get flushed away.

The modus operandi, however, left the officials baffled.

Wanting to know more about this technique, they questioned Tamboli, who said that he had practised it for two days by inserting a torch cell.

“A few hours before he boarded the flight from Dubai, he wrapped the diamonds and rubies in a piece of cotton and packed it with a plastic tape. The consignment was then put into a condom and then inserted it inside his private part. He was sure that nobody would suspect him and that he would be able to leave the airport without any hassles,” a customs official said.

The police suspect that Tamboli had visited Dubai only few days ago and was given this consignment there. “We are interrogating him further to ascertain who gave him the consignment in Dubai and who was supposed to receive it Mumbai. Interestingly, Tamboli did all this for a meagre Rs4,000 promised by the syndicate,” the officer said.

Modus operandiA few hours before he boarded the flight from Dubai, Zakir Tamboli wrapped the diamonds and rubies in a piece of cotton and packed it with a plastic tape. He then put the consignment into a condom and then inserted it inside his rectum.