While officials of the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) only confirmed the ``practice'' of withdrawal of diplomats should an incident of misuse of their immunity occur, sources in the intelligence agencies said the two diplomats have since been withdrawn.

The diplomats, a Second Secretary and an Attache, were detained on June 27 and are believed to have left the country within the next three or four days.

The detentions were carried out by officials of the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI). An official from the MEA's protocol division was present at the airport and once the suspicion of smuggling was confirmed, a senior official from the Embassy of Saudi Arabia was called in to witness the recording of evidence.

The detention led to this year's largest haul of gold. The Saudi SecondSecretary was carrying 220 biscuits of gold, weighing 26 kilograms. While 20 kg of the gold was stacked in the diplomat's checked-in suitcase, the remaining six kg were stashed in his cabin baggage. The gold has been valued at Rs 1 crore.

``There was hardly any other luggage in the diplomat's suitcase, just one or two shirts. This is one of the occasions where we have seen a passenger carrying so much gold in a checked-in piece of baggage,'' said a senior Customs official.

Sources say the diplomat's passport showed he had frequently made one-day trips from New Delhi to the Gulf. This time, he had arrived on a Gulf Air flight from Muscat, only to be immediately whisked away by the party from DRI and MEA.

The second detention took place minutes later in the airport's departure lounge. This diplomat, an Attache in the Saudi Embassy, was carrying foreign currency worth Rs 1.9 crore and sources say there is now every reason to believe that he too was proceeding for a quick trip to the Gulf to bring in aconsignment of gold.

Officials say that given the sensitivity of the case, they had done a lot of homework before confronting the diplomats who enjoy immunity under the 1961 Vienna Convention. The Ministry of Finance has now been informed of the seizure and officials say early investigations have revealed that the gold consignment was to be taken to the Saudi Embassy.

While officials of the Saudi Embassy refused to comment on the incident, MEA officials said they would not like to speak specifics. ``If such an incident occurs, a senior official from the Embassy is called by the MEA and a withdrawal would be expected. Whether this has been done in this case or not, we cannot say,'' said an official of the MEA's Protocol Division.