A 43-year-old Indian man has been fined MVR 60,000 (USD 3907) for smuggling gold into the country.
Criminal court sentenced Subeir Paranmal Puthia who arrived in the Maldives on a Wizz Air flight from Abu Dhabi on March 17.
Customs officials found him to be suspicious and stopped him for questioning at the Velana international airport.
His luggage was searched and a document from Indian customs was found, which showed that he had smuggled gold into India.
He was taken to Indira Gandhi Memorial Hospital (IGMH) for a CT scan and two bullets with 361 grams of gold were found inside his body.
Prosecutors charged him with illegally smuggling goods into the country and he confessed in court under a plea deal.
The court ordered him to pay MVR 60,000 to Maldives Inland Revenue Authority (MIRA) within three months. The smuggled gold should be kept under customs, the court ruled.
Several Indians have been fined the same amount for gold smuggling in other cases.
