The Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) officials have arrested one more person in connection to the case wherein two passengers were nabbed from the international airport on Friday for allegedly trying to smuggle foreign currency valued at Rs 3.7 crore outside India. The third accused person had allegedly handed over the bags containing cash to the passengers for smuggling purposes.
According to the DRI, on receipt of specific intelligence on two passengers intending to smuggle foreign currency outside India, the officials had intercepted two passengers at the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport in the early hours of Friday. They were scheduled to travel to Sharjah.
"Examination of their baggage yielded foreign currency in the form of US Dollars and Saudi Riyals, valued at Rs 3.7 crore. The foreign currency was found concealed deep in ingeniously designed false bottoms of the carry-on luggage. The passengers had no documents for the illicit possession or for legal export of the said foreign currency, which was later seized," said a DRI official.
The agency sources said that, based on the information provided by the intercepted passengers, the DRI officials had traced and arrested one HV Raut. "Raut had handed over the bags to the passengers for smuggling purposes. He was nabbed by the DRI team after some quick thinking and swift action on the field," the official said.
Besides amounting to “smuggling” in terms of the Customs Act, illicit export of foreign currency provides a means for laundering proceeds of unlawful and criminal activities. Further, it also poses a grave threat to the national economy and national security. DRI maintains an active vigil and operational readiness to check the smuggling of foreign currency, gold, narcotics and other contraband goods into and out of India. This was the fourth such case of large foreign currency seizure at an international airport in the last one and a half months, the agency had said in a statement on Friday.
