7 Sudanese held with unaccounted foreign currency at airport

Seven Sundanese nationals, including three women, were arrested at the Mumbai international airport yesterday in separate incidents for allegedly carrying unaccounted for foreign currency worth over Rs 2 crore, a Customs official said today.

Three women passengers- Fadwa Mohamed, Nashwa Mohamed and Abier Ahmed- were intercepted on the basis of specific inputs by the Air Intelligence Unit of the Customs, the official said.

A detailed examination of the purses of the three women who were headed to Dubai led to the recovery of 50,000 USD each, equivalent to Indian currency amounting to Rs 1.42 crore, he said.

In another incident, the officials also examined bags of Eatemad Ibrahim, Eiman Ali, and Asia Elhag and seized USD 95100 (Rs 63,66, 945).

In a separate incident, 80,000 USD (Rs 53,56,000) were recovered from the bag of one Mohamed Abdelazim Ahmed while he was about to leave for Dubai.

The combined value of all the seizure is Rs 2,17,65,445, the official said.

All the above seven persons are Sudanese nationals.

In another incident, the Customs officials recovered four gold plates valued at Rs 3,45,172 from One Shaikh Ali.

Shaikh, holding Indian passport had arrived from Dubai.

The Sudanese nationals have been arrested and booked under relevant sections of the Customs Act, he added.