Pune:
Three college students, travelling from Dubai, have been stopped on the Pune airport final week. When their luggage have been searched, the Air Intelligence Unit (AIU) of the Pune Customs Division discovered $400,100 (Rs 3.5 crore) hid between the pages of books.
Their questioning revealed the trolley luggage belonged to Pune-based journey agent Khushbu Agarwal who advised them they contained her workplace paperwork. The scholars had booked a journey package deal for his or her Dubai journey by way of Ms Agarwal.
“On the final minute earlier than departure from Pune, she handed over two luggage to college students on the pretext that they contained her workplace paperwork urgently required at her Dubai workplace. The scholars accepted these luggage and departed from Pune,” mentioned AIU sources.
“When the scholars have been interrogated, it was discovered that they got some paperwork to ship to an workplace in Dubai. The scholars didn’t know that international forex was hidden of their luggage,” they added.
The hawala racket involving US forex was busted after info was obtained on an enormous amount of international forex positioned inside two trolley luggage smuggled out of India by an individual utilizing three passengers. The customs division alerted their Dubai counterparts and saved a watch on the three college students.
Once they returned to Pune by a SpiceJet flight on February 17, their luggage have been searched by the AIU officers who recovered $400, 100.
Ms Agarwal was detained quickly after and her assertion was recorded below the Customs Act.
Additional investigation led the officers to a foreign exchange agency positioned in Mumbai’s Fort space. International forex value Rs 45 lakh was recovered after the agency was raided, Mohammed Aamir, who had provided the US forex, was additionally arrested by the officers.
AIU and Customs officers additionally performed simultaneous searches at 10 locations in Pune, Ahmedabad, and Mumbai.