MUMBAI, Sep 25 (TOI): Gold bars worth Rs 28 lakh were seized at the international airport on Thursday and a Jet Airways cabin crew member arrested for smuggling them, after a fair deal of drama.

The man, Deepak Pandey, hid the bars in a sofa outside the customs' superintendent's room, just before he was frisked. Officials let him go but, later, a customs staffer noticed the gold and CCTV footage showed Pandey hiding it there. He was called back for further questioning and arrested.

Thursday's seizure follows surprise checks on crew members of Mumbai-Dubai return flights. "A few months ago we arrested crew members of the same flight with gold and diamond collectively valued at more than Rs 1 crore," said Milind Lanjewar, additional commissioner, customs.

A Jet Airways spokesperson said, "Jet Airways is fully cooperating with the investigating agencies. Jet Airways has zero tolerance towards any action of its employees that contravenes local or international laws prevalent in the countries of its operations. We take immediate disciplinary action as per company policy and after due investigation."

On Thursday, after the arrival of flight 9W-543, some of its crew members were taken aside for frisking. They were sitting on a sofa outside the superintendent's room, waiting for their turn. Officials didn't find anything with Pandey or the other crew members, so they were allowed to leave. After a while an official noticed a packet stuffed in a corner of the sofa. On opening it, he found it contained 1.2kg gold.

"We checked the CCTV footage, it showed Pandey concealing the packet there. We called all the crew members again for questioning and arrested Pandey," said Kiran Kumar, assistant commissioner of customs.

An official said Pandey was just a carrier like most other staffers arrested in the past and didn't know the mastermind behind the operation. He was given the gold at Dubai airport, with instructions to hand it to someone in Mumbai after passing customs.

Officials said gold smugglers make frequent foreign trips in which they lure airline staff with easy money, paying between Rs 25,000-50,000 for each kilo of gold. First they ask the target for small favours, like helping to take mobile phones out of the airport, in exchange for money. Once the recruiter is convinced that the airline employee can easily take gold out of the airport, they are roped in.