Mumbai: Officials from the Air Intelligence unit of Customs (AIU) on Thursday morning seized Rs 28 lakh in new notes of Rs 2000 notes from a passenger identified as Ashraf Unichiram Vettil, (30) an Indian resident, who was heading to Dubai, from Chhatrapati Shivaji International (CSI) airport.
Officials have recovered Rs 28,000 from his check-in baggage. “Vettil had camouflaged the notes by putting items like plastic toys and tissue papers which was recovered from his check-in baggage,” said a senior AIU officer. Ms Rama Mathew, commissioner of customs at CSI airport, said, “The currency was seized under the impression that the passenger was smuggling it out of India.” She further added, “It was seized under customs act 1962, and FEMA (export and import of currency) 2000 Act.”
A source from customs informed The Asian Age that, taking currency above worth Rs 25,000 out of India is illegal and once it gets seized and the passenger have to pay a penalty.
A senior official from AIU informed that further investigation in the case is on. The official said, “The passenger in his statement informed that the currency belongs to someone named Siddique and he was carrying it for a monetary profit of Rs 20,000. Our investigation revealed that Siddique had also lured him by offering him free air tickets to Dubai,” said the official.
AIU sources informed the newspaper that since the currency crisis is on, the cases of people bringing old notes to India to get them exchanged is on rise and recently they had intercepted one passenger who had arrived with almost Rs 2 lakh in the form of old notes at the city airport.
