delhi

Updated: Feb 18, 2020 05:47 IST

Rolled bundles of Kuwaiti Dinars and Saudi Riyals, worth Rs 42 lakh, were recovered from perfume cans that a 40-year-old man was carrying in his luggage in the Indira Gandhi International Airport, allegedly trying to smuggle it to Dubai. The man was caught minutes before his flight by Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) during a security check on Sunday afternoon, and was handed over to the customs.

According to CISF personnel, around 3pm, staff from the surveillance team zeroed in on one passenger when he was spotted moving “suspiciously” around check-in queues in Terminal 3. It was at this point that he was intercepted, said Hemendra Singh, assistant inspector general (AIG), CISF.

“On enquiry, the man identified himself as Mohammad Arshi from Delhi and said he is scheduled to board an Air India flight to Dubai. When asked why he was going there, Arshi could not give any satisfactory reply and gave contradictory statements. We then asked him to accompany us to the random checking point for a thorough scan of his bags,” Singh said.

“While checking his bags under the X-ray scanner, our men noticed some suspicious images,” he said. “When we checked the luggage manually, apart from his essentials, we found some cloth pouches and a few perfume cans. A closer look revealed that the pouches contained some Kuwaiti Dinars and Saudi Riyals. The cans were then separately put under an X-ray scanner, and we found more currency,” Singh said.

He said they recovered 1,97,500 Saudi Riyals and 2,000 Kuwaiti Dinars, amounting to Rs 42.35 lakh. “He could not produce any valid document for carrying the foreign currency. During initial questioning the man said he had been tasked with delivering the money to some unidentified contact in Dubai. He was handed him over to the customs with the recovered cash,” Singh said.