Afghan national held with over $20,000 at IGI airport

An Afghan national has been apprehended by the CISF at the Delhi airport for allegedly carrying over USD 20,000 in cash, officials said today.

M G Murtaza was intercepted by security officials yesterday based on random profiling of passengers and a total of USD 20,100 were recovered from his bag, they said.

The foreign currency is equivalent to about Rs 13.79 lakh, and it has been handed over to the Customs authorities at the Indira Gandhi International Airport (IGIA) along with the Afghani national who was bound for Kabul, the officials said.

The big amount of foreign currency, prima facie, looked to be suspicious and the Customs department will now investigate the case, they said.

In a similar incident, a Hong Kong-bound Indian man, S Chopra, was apprehended by the Central Industrial Security Force personnel for carrying USD 1,50,700 in an alleged unauthorised manner yesterday at the IGIA.

The US dollars are equivalent to about Rs 1.03 crore and the currency have been handed over to Customs personnel, the officials said.