Foreign currency seized in Mumbai: The Air Intelligence Unit (AIU) of the Pune Customs Department has exposed a hawala racket based on intelligence, in which students traveling abroad were being used for smuggling foreign currency. Investigation revealed that the accused was hidden in the bags of these students among the books. The officials seized a total of US $ 4,00,100 from the students, which is about Rs 3.5 crore.
AIU sources said that Pune -based travel agent Khushboo Aggarwal and Mumbai -based forex dealer Mohammad Aamir have been arrested in the case. Sources told that when the students were questioned, it was found that some documents were given to reach an office in Dubai. Students did not know that foreign currency was hidden in their bags.
Customs department got information on 17 February
AIU said that on February 17, the Customs Department received intelligence information, on the basis of which he alerted the counter part of Dubai and monitored three students going from Pune to Dubai. On his return to India, custom officials searched his bag and recovered the hidden foreign currency.
Two bags given before climbing on the plane
The students told the custom officials that the bags belonged to their travel agent Khushboo Agarwal. He told that Aggarwal handed over two bags to him just before flying from Pune and said that he has documents required for his Dubai office. The students were not aware that foreign currency was kept in the bag.
Forex firm raided
According to the information received in further investigation, the authorities raided a forex firm located in the Fort area of ​​Mumbai, from where the foreign currency worth Rs 45 lakh was recovered and Mohammad Aamir was arrested, who was involved in the smuggling. In a joint operation of Pune, Mumbai and Ahmedabad custom officers, raided 10 locations in all three cities simultaneously.
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