Forex smuggling: Jet Airways to take action against female flight attendant

Jet Airways will take further action against one of its female flight attendants arrested by the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence for allegedly smuggling forex to Hong Kong worth over Rs 30 million, the company has said.

The airline said it has a strict code of conduct and zero tolerance towards any action of its employees that contravenes domestic or international laws of the countries in which it operates.

"Based on the investigations and inputs from law enforcement agencies, the airline will take further action," Jet Airways said in a filing to the BSE yesterday.

The company was asked by the exchange to provide its response over a news reports in this regard.

"This (news) article will not have any material impact on the company as the event involves an act committed by the concerned crew in her individual capacity and not as an employee acting on the instructions of the company," the airline said.

The Directorate of Revenue Intelligence had arrested the flight attendant, Deveshi Kulshreshtha, for allegedly trying to smuggle out $480,200 (Rs 3.25 crore) from a Jet Airways plane that was scheduled to take off for Hong Kong from here yesterday, officials said.

Later, a tour operator identified as Amit Malhotra was also arrested for being part of a major hawala racket busted by the DRI, they said.

Both Deveshi and Malhotra were produced before a court yesterday that remanded them to two-day judicial custody.

The DRI suspects the role of some other crew members of Jet Airways in smuggling of foreign currencies, the officials said.