Mumbai, June 4 (IANS) The Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) personnel on Thursday intercepted a foreign national at the Mumbai airport and recovered illicit foreign currency worth Rs 1.39 crore, being carried by him in his baggage.

The foreign national was subsequently taken into custody and handed over to the Customs officials at the airport for further interrogation and action.

According to CISF officials, the said passenger was travelling from Mumbai to Addis Ababa with the unaccounted cash.

The foreign national, while checking in for the scheduled flight, came under the scanner of vigilant officials after the latter observed some suspicious objects in his baggage during screening at the X-BIS system. The X-ray image of his belongings created some suspicion, prompting the CISF officials to carry out a detailed examination of his hand baggage.

The incident unfolded at the city airport this morning, when the security personnel were conducting routine baggage screening at the airport.

It was during the baggage screening that the CISF personnel stumbled upon a suspicious bag, belonging to a traveller of foreign origin, and then dug deeper into the scanned image. An uncleared foreign currency amounting to USD 145,000 (approx Rs 1.39 crore) was found in his bag and subsequently seized by the authorities.

Notably, this is not a one-off incident of discovery of foreign currency and its subsequent impounding by the security officials at airports across the country.

A month ago, the CISF personnel uncovered another such incident and apprehended a flier with foreign currency at the Hyderabad airport.

The passenger, slated to fly to Dubai on April 22, this year, was nabbed by the officials over a suspected behavioural pattern and security profiling.

When the officials conducted a security check, an amount of Rs 9.62 lakh — all in foreign currency was recovered from his baggage. The foreign currencies were in the form of US dollars, UAE dirhams and Saudi riyals.

His suspicious behaviour was spotted by CISF’s CIW team, and he was then taken to the X-BIS screening point for scanning his baggage.

As the examination confirmed the presence of illicit and undeclared foreign currency, his baggage was seized, and the passenger was handed over to the Customs officials for further action.

–IANS

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