Mumbai: 3 held at CSMI Airport for trying to smuggle ₹1.46 crore in foreign currency to Dubai

Mumbai:The Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) has arrested three persons for allegedly trying to smuggle foreign currency 57,900 Euros and 44,2300 UAE Dirhams (total ₹1.46 crore) to Dubai. The DRI officials had recorded statements of all the three accused who revealed that one person named RK alias "RAKA" had offered them Rs10,000 each for carrying one trolley bag each along with free travel tickets to Dubai.

The arrested persons have been identified as Amit Kumar, Bhim Singh and Vikramjeet, all hailing from Sirsa in Haryana.

All three were intercepted at customs counter at CSMI Airport

According to the DRI, based on the intelligence that three passengers flying to Dubai in the wee hours of Sunday would attempt to smuggle out huge quantities of foreign currency, all the three passengers were intercepted at the customs counter at the CSMI Airport, Mumbai at around 01.15 am.

The trio were found to carry a total of three trolley bags in the check-in baggage. The trolley bags were off-loaded from the flight. During the search proceedings, the smuggled currencies were recovered.

“The accused are part of the same syndicate and are yet to reveal more information about the mastermind behind the smuggling. The accused admitted that they had accepted the offer from RK and they were well aware of the consequences if anything goes wrong. The accused are the key link of the syndicate and are the main coordinator between the persons smuggling foreign currency from India,” said a DRI official.

Act of smuggling in an organized manner

He added, “It is evident that all the three accused have been actively involved in exporting, handling, dealing of foreign currency outside India. The other members of the syndicate are still at large. The present case involves acts of smuggling in an organised manner by a syndicate operating on a global level. The involvement of other key members and sources for purchase of the foreign currency, needs to be investigated."