BENGALURU: A senior Customs officer from Chennai was caught by the Central Industrial Security Force at Bengaluru airport carrying cash to the tune of Rs 74,81,500 in his hand baggage on Tuesday morning. The officer has been handed over to the Enforcement Directorate for interrogation.
Superintendent of Customs at Chennai Irfan Ahmed Mohammed was on his way to board a flight to Lucknow along with his wife when he was stopped during security screening, said an airport source. "During regular baggage screening, the notes amounting to Rs 74,81,500 were found in bundles of Rs 2,000 in his hand baggage. It was not concealed inside anything," he said.
The incident occurred around 9.30 am. Mohammed was on his way to board IndiGo flight 6E 625, which had a scheduled departure of 10.20 am.
The airport source said that carrying such a huge sum of money on a flight without prior permission was an offence. An airport cop told The New Indian Express that in addition to the cash, hi-end mobile phones and some gold jewellery were also found in the baggage. "Carrying a few valuables was not a serious issue but carrying bundles of notes running into lakhs without details on the source of money is illegal,"he added.
An attempt to flush down notes worth Rs 10 lakh in the airport toilet was unsuccessful. Another airport source said that as soon as the officer was caught, his wife said she was not feeling well and headed to the washroom. "After she left the washroom, the place was searched by CISF lady staffers. They looked around the place and recovered notes totalling Rs 10 lakh from it."
An Indigo spokesperson did not have any response with reference to this specific incident. However, she said, "Our flight rules permit domestic passengers to carry upto Rs 50,000 in cash without any documents and upto Rs 2 lakh with supporting documents."