Thirty people who were detained at the Lucknow airport for allegedly smuggling gold into the country escaped after one of them pretended to fall sick and created chaos, officials said.
Customs and police officials have launched a search operation to nab the accused, they said.
Additional Deputy Commissioner of Police Shashank Singh said officials of the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence and the Customs Department on Monday stopped 36 passengers from Sharjah at the Chaudhary Charan Singh Airport in Lucknow.
When the officials frisked them, cigarettes worth more than Rs 3 crore and cash worth Rs 23.90 lakh were seized from some of them, Singh said.
Six of the passengers told officials that they were carrying gold, he said.
On Tuesday, when the remaining 30 passengers were being questioned, one of them pretended to be ill and created chaos.
Taking advantage of this, all of them fled, the officer said.
A case has been registered under relevant sections on the complaint in the matter and efforts are being made to arrest the accused, he added.
