In an incident that is worrying because of both its ramifications and intent, the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence and the Airport Air Intelligence Unit have arrested two Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) personnel who were helping smugglers bring in Rs3.5 crore worth of gold from Dubai. Two other persons have also been arrested. The breach has particularly alarmed security agencies because the two CISF officers in question did not even know the content of the bags they were helping smuggle.

With the incident now being considered a huge breach of security, customs and DRI officials are going to write to the home department and other higher authorities of the CISF.

“These two people were doing all this for money, but what if there were explosives in the bag? Our investigations are on to find out exactly for how long were they involved in such acts and how many more such people are there in this system,” said an officer on the condition of anonymity.

The arrested CISF personnel have been identified as Murari Lal Meena and Uday Singh Meena; the two arrested gold traders are Atul Bafna and S Chaeda. Bafna was carrying gold that weighed 4.5 kg and Chaeda is believed to have been carrying 5.5 kg of the same.

The incident took place at around 8.30 pm on Friday. Wanting to lay a trap that would successfully help nab the gold dealers, the DRI and Customs officials were working on a tip-off that had already implicated the colluding CISF officers. Once his flight had landed from Dubai, Chaeda first headed for the washroom. He was followed by Uday and it was here that they exchanged bags.

At this point, DRI and Customs officers went in for the arrest. The officers found out later that Murari, another CISF employee, was waiting right outside since it was his task to ensure that the bag reaches its desired destination.

On Saturday morning, the agencies then arrested Bafna, who was also caught carrying gold. He is also said to have headed first for the washroom where he was waiting for either of the arrested security personnel to take the bag from him. He is believed to have panicked after no help arrived. He rushed toward the green channel and was eventually arrested by Customs officers.

According to the customs, helping smugglers was easy for Uday and Murari since they could clear all security checks. “At all the airports, it’s very difficult to smuggle easily these days. That’s why the demand for carriers has come down and smugglers are now targeting such black sheep from the security agencies to get their goods cleared,” said a senior custom officer from the airport.

BoxThe Intelligence Bureau has given inputs to the security agencies which say that the smuggling of explosives can occur at airports. The IB had also detailed modalities that describe how such explosives could be hid in the body. With August 15 around the corner, all the country’s airports are on high alert. The security of Mumbai Chatrapati Shivaji International Airport is looked after by the CISF and the local police. This latest incident has raised the eyebrows of all agencies.