Eight arrested in Rs 2.58 Crore gold theft from Akasa Air cargo

Police in Ahmedabad arrested eight people for allegedly stealing 2.1 kilograms of gold jewellery worth Rs 2.58 crore from an Akasa Air cargo consignment. Investigators uncovered a pre-planned insider racket involving airline staff, cargo handlers and gold smugglers

Ahmedabad: Eight persons were arrested for alleged involvement in a pre-planned racket to steal 2.1 kilograms of gold jewellery worth Rs 2.58 crore from the cargo of Akasa Air in Ahmedabad, a police official said on Friday.

The probe into the case began after seven parcels

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containing gold jewellery were dispatched from Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel International Airport to Bengaluru through Sequel Logistics Company via Akasa Air on May 18 and one parcel containing 2.1 kilograms of gold went missing, Deputy Commissioner of Police Zone-4 Atulkumar Bansal said. The Ahmedabad police’s probe using technical surveillance, CCTV footage etc exposed the entire racket, he added.

The arrested accused comprise Salemohammad alias Salam Mohammad Amin Ansari, Kadlip Patel, Roshan Patel, Zaid Ansari, Sultan Sama, Ravikant Bagiya, Kiran Pawar and Shankar Vakshe. The official said Rizwan, Farooq Sama, Yogesh Patil and Jayesh Parmar are absconding. Salemohammad allegedly posed as a passenger on the same flight on which the consignment was carried, with his ticket being booked in advance by Jayanti Patel, the official said explaining the modus operandi.

“Roshan Patel is in-charge of cleaning at Akasa Air, while Jayesh Parmar is a cargo handler. When cargo was being loaded from Ahmedabad airport, Parmar allegedly created an obstruction while loading the cargo and shifted gold from the parcel to Salam Ansari’s bag,” the official said.

Mastermind Zaid Ansari, who works as airline security in-charge, allegedly called a meeting of other loaders and carried out their checking and frisking in order to facilitate Parmar in his mission, police said.

“The stolen gold was brought to Ahmedabad by Salman Ansari and given to one Rizwan, who gave it to one Paresh who converted the jewellery into gold bars. Paresh then handed the gold bars to another individual who later sold them to different jewellers in Rajkot and Ahmedabad,” the DCP said. Eight persons have been arrested for stealing 2.1 kg of gold jewellery worth Rs. 2.58 crore, with police managing to recover Rs 1.72 crore of the stolen asset, he added.

Two of the eight arrested accused, Zaid Ansari and Roshan Patel, worked for Akasa Air.
In a statement, the airline said it terminated the services of two employees. “Two of the accused individuals who were employees of Akasa Air are no longer employed by us,” an official statement from the airline noted.

“The matter was reported immediately to police authorities by Akasa Air after the incident. We have extended full support to the relevant authorities and will continue to cooperate with the ongoing investigation,” it added. As the investigation is ongoing, we will not be commenting further at this stage, the statement added.