Two held for smuggling foreign currency worth Rs 25.25 lakh

Sleuths of the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence, Ahmedabad, arrested two people from Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel International airport (SVPI) for allegedly smuggling out Rs 25.25 lakhs, in foreign denomination, to Bangkok.  The duo has been identified as Parshottam Rajani and Rajkumar Tharwani.

The accused were supposed to board SG-85, a SpiceJet flight, on Tuesday.

The accused have denied charges of smuggling any foreign currency, police said.  

The smuggled notes were recovered during a security check of at the luggage counter, the sleuths added. The currencies included the US dollars, Euro dollars and Thai Baht equivalent to Rs. 25.25 lakhs. “They admitted that they were to smuggle gold into India from Bangkok purchased from these foreign currencies. They were promised Rs 20,000 each by the smuggling syndicate per trip to work as carriers,” a statement from DRI said.

Interestingly, based on a tip-off by DRI about a Mumbai-based gold smuggling racket, the Air Intelligence Unit, Mumbai, intercepted two passengers at the city’s airport and recovered 1.6 kg gold. One of the passengers, Bhanga Jagdish, was caught with 1.2 kg gold. Jagdish had concealed the gold in the rectum. He took the smuggled gold from an international passenger at Trivandrum airport and came to Mumbai as a domestic passenger in Indigo flight 6E-176.

The other passenger came to Mumbai from Dubai on Air India Express flight IX-248 and was caught with 400 gms of gold concealed, crushed and mixed with chemicals and glued on his T-shirt. The smuggled gold and foreign currencies have been seized, DRI said.

PAST CASE

In April, DRI arrested a passenger from SVPI with 1 kg smuggled gold. The passenger was carrying 24-carat raw gold chains and bangles. One was arrested from Ahmedabad, three from Mumbai airport.