Hyderabad, Feb 23 (IANS): A domestic air passenger who had concealed gold in paste form inside his rectum was caught at Rajiv Gandhi International Airport, Customs officials said on Wednesday.

The male passenger had reached Hyderabad from Imphal by Indigo Flight 6E187 on Tuesday.

Acting on a tip-off, the Customs officials apprehended the passenger and recovered 975.16 grams of gold in paste form which he had concealed in his rectum. The gold was valued at Rs 50.70 lakh.

A case of gold smuggling was booked against the passenger.

This is the first case of a domestic passenger being caught smuggling gold at Hyderabad airport. In the majority of the cases, passengers coming from Dubai and some other destinations in the Gulf are found illegally carrying gold.

This is the second case of gold smuggling detected at Hyderabad airport in less than a week. On February 19, a male passenger who arrived from Dubai was caught with 394.18 gms of gold valued at Rs 20.40 lakh. The gold in paste form was concealed between sheets of corrugated boxes.

Tuesday's recovery is also the latest case in which a passenger was found carrying gold in his rectum.

On January 11, 1.48 kg gold valued at Rs 72.80 lakh was seized from three women passengers who arrived from Dubai. One of them had concealed the gold in her rectum.

In the last week of December, Customs officials had recovered 1.19 kg gold valued at Rs 59.23 lakh from a passenger who had concealed it in his rectum. The male passenger had arrived from Dubai.