Tribunal upholds confiscation of 13 kg smuggled gold at Cochin airport, scales back penalties
Customs officers seized thirteen one-kg gold bars hidden in airport shuttle coaches at Cochin in May 2015 and penalised 33 people in an alleged airport smuggling network. The tribunal upheld confiscation of the unclaimed 13 kg but cut penalties to the seized quantity, and set aside the confiscation of a jewellery-shop owner's stock, car and penalty for lack of proof.
This page records what the cited court, tribunal and government records say happened. Findings belong to the court or authority that made them; this register adds none of its own. Names of private individuals are withheld unless a naming gate clears them.
How we verify →Confiscation of the 13 kg stands; reduced penalties apply as per the 6 February 2026 tribunal order.
What happened
The Tribunal recorded that officers intercepted an arriving Dubai-Cochin passenger who admitted concealing eight gold bars, and found four taped packets of eight 1-kg bars plus five more abandoned 1-kg bars in two shuttle coaches.
The Tribunal stated that the gold was seized under Section 110 of the Customs Act, 1962, and that confiscation of the unclaimed 13 kg stands upheld and sustained.
The Tribunal held the revenue had not proved that ornaments in the jewellery-shop owner's shop came from contraband, and set aside the confiscation of his gold jewellery and vehicle along with his penalty.
The Tribunal rejected penalties computed on an alleged 2000 kg network total, limiting them to the seized 13 kg, and set aside penalties on several staff and associates for lack of corroboration.
What the record says
“confiscation of the same stands upheld and sustained.”
CESTAT Final Order No. 20173-20205/2026 dated 06-02-2026 ([name withheld] vs Cochin-Cus) — read the full text
A peaceful economic act
Carrying gold across a border harmed no one; the order describes concealment and duty evasion only, with no violence, fraud victim, or harmful product.
What we could not confirm
The order decides appeals from a 2017 adjudication of a 2015 seizure; no more recent Kerala gold order was found. COFEPOSA detentions of some accused, affirmed by the Kerala High Court, are noted in the order but their dates are not detailed.