Huge amount of USD found in passengers' bags at Kolkata Airport

Aa duty personnel of the CISF noticed some suspicious article in a hand bag and picked it up for thorough checking. On manual checking of the bag, a cavity was found at the bottom of the bag.

When the bottom was cut open in presence of the passenger, $ 33,000 was found concealed in the false bottom of the hand baggage. The passenger, who was identified as A. Mumtaj, was on the way to board a flight to Imphal.

Consequently, her other baggage was also checked thoroughly and a false bottom was also found there. In that, another $ 33,600 was found.

On the checking of the CCTV footage, it was revealed that Mumtaj was in contact with another woman passenger, wearing a veil. On the basis of electronic and manual surveillance the woman was identified and brought to security hold area for enquiry.
The other passenger, identified as Praveen Bano, was also flying to Imphal on the same flight.

On tactful questioning and checking the boarding passes of both the passengers, it was revealed that both had booked two registered baggages each, totalling four baggages, on the flight.

In co-ordination with customs officials and IndiGo airlines officials, the baggages were retrieved and were physically checked in presence of customs and airlines officials.

On thorough checking of the baggages it was noticed that they also contained false bottoms. After opening the false bottom of the baggages, high volume of foreign currency concealed in the false bottom of all four registered baggages was detected.

“A total of $ 67,000 was recovered from the registered baggages of A. Mumtaj and $ 66,400 was recovered from the registered baggages of Praveen Banu," CISF spokesperson Hemendra Singh told UNI.

Both the women along with the seized currency were handed over to Customs officials for further investigation and legal action, Mr Singh added.