Man held with 34,500 US dollars at IGI

New Delhi, June 2 (IANS) A man was held at Delhi's Indira Gandhi International Airport (IGI) on Wednesday for allegedly attempting to smuggle 34,500 US dollars, by hiding it in the false bottom of his sweet boxes which he was carrying.

A senior CISF official said that on the basis of behavioural detection, CISF surveillance and intelligence staff noticed suspicious activities of a passenger at Check-In area near J row, Terminal-3 of the Indira Gandhi International Airport on June 1.

The passenger was later identified as Ravi Kumar, an Indian national, who was supposed to travel to Dubai by Air India Express flight.

"On suspicion, he was diverted to random checking point for thorough checking of his luggage. On checking of his hand bag through X-BIS machine, some foreign currency concealed in the false bottom of some gift packed boxes of sweet, spice was noticed," the CISF official said.

Kumar was allowed to complete the check-in formalities and was kept under close watch through physical and electronic measures. The matter was also informed to senior officers of CISF and customs officials.

"When Kumar cleared the check-in and immigration formalities, he was intercepted by CISF surveillance and intelligence staff. Kumar along with his hand bag was brought to the Departure Customs office, where on physical checking, 15 gift packed boxes of sweets, spices were noticed inside his baggage. On close scrutiny of the boxes it was noticed that false bottom was created in the boxes and US Dollars were concealed to avoid detection. In total, 30,000 US Dollars were detected from the false bottom of the sweet boxes," the official said.

Later when his wallet was checked, 4,500 more US Dollars were found.

On enquiry, Kumar could not produce valid documents to carry such amount of foreign currency.

"Kumar along with the detected 34,500 US Dollars worth Rs 27 lakh was handed over to customs officials for further action in the matter," said the official.