COLOMBO : Sri Lanka’s parliamentarian Ali Sabri Raheem from the Puttalam electorate, who was arrested at the airport earlier on Tuesday May 23 for smuggling 3.5 kilo of gold and 91 mobile phones, worth LKR 78 million, has been grilled at the Customs for more than five hours.
The parliamentarian was apprehended at the Bandaranaike International Airport (BIA) in Katunayake Tuesday morning for being in possession of a stock of undeclared gold and mobile phones.
MP Raheem had returned to the island from Dubai, UAE at around 9.45 a.m. via a flight belonging to Flydubai Airlines.
He was taken into custody by the officials of Revenue Task Force Directorate of Sri Lanka Customs at the airport’s VIP terminal ‘Gold Route’.
Upon checking his luggage, the Customs officials discovered 3.39kg of undeclared gold jewellery and gold biscuits to the tune of LKR 74 million.
In addition, a total of 91 mobile phones worth LKR 4.2 million too were found on the parliamentarian.
Later, Speaker of Parliament Mahinda Yapa Abeywardena was informed of the Puttalam District MP’s arrest.
After being grilled for nearly five hours by authorities, the parliamentarian was brought to the Revenue Task Force Directorate’s branch in Orugodawatta for onward investigations.
This is the second time, a parliamentarian was caught smuggling through the Colombo airport. Earlier, UNP legislator Anura Daniel was apprehended for similar offence in 1978. Inputs from Ada Derana and Pix from Hiru
