KOCHI: In the wake of the Centre’s decision to discontinue the high denomination Rs 1,000 and Rs 500 currency notes as part of the crackdown on black money, airports across the country have become susceptible to the smuggling of Indian currency parked overseas.
And the Customs Department is now forced to manually inspect the baggage of those suspected of carrying loads of Indian currency since the baggage scanner used by them will not be able to pick out the stashed cash.
K N Raghavan, Commissioner of Customs, Kochi, said an increased vigil was mounted to thwart any bid to bring in Indian currency from abroad.
“It is true that detecting the currencies through scanning machines is not an easy task. When baggage having currency in bundles undergo checking, it appears like a book. This is because currency is concealed inside books, sanitary napkin packets and tissue paper packets to avoid detection,” he said.
According to K N Raghavan, officers deployed for baggage checking are experienced to detect currencies.
“If the currency is arranged in bundles, we can detect the notes easily. Since majority of the currencies are more or less alike in appearance, the officials at the baggage checking counter remain on heightened alert and they manually inspect the baggage,” he said.
Further, the Commissioner of Customs said an alert had been sounded at airports in the wake of the demonetisation move, with officials directed to leave nothing to chance.