Foreign currency worth Rs 77 lakh seized from Singapore air passenger

Officials from the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) on Friday arrested a passenger who was carrying the equivalent of Rs 77 lakh in foreign currency notes at the Chennai airport.

Two of the bundles were tightly packed and wrapped with tape and concealed in his rectum. Other bundles were in his baggage.

Acting on a tip-off that Yousuf Shahul Hameed was carrying the currency in his baggage, DRI officials questioned him at the Chennai airport here, an official release said.

On searching him, DRI officials found that Hameed was carrying two bundles of foreign currency in his baggage and also had concealed two more bundles in his rectum.

A DRI official said Hameed could not produce any documents for legal purchase and possession of the foreign currency and as the amount was above the permitted limit, it was seized and he was arrested under the provisions of the Customs Act, 1962 and the Baggage Rules, 2016 read with Foreign Exchange Management (Import and Export of Currency) Regulations, 2015.