On Sunday, January 8, officials of the Kolkata customs department recovered 40,000 US dollars, worth over Rs 32 lakh, from the checked-in baggage of a passenger. The 100-dollar notes of US currency were concealed inside several gutkha pouches.
In a video shared by the news agency ANI, a customs officer can be seen tearing a packet containing gutkha pouches. The official then tears one of the gutkha pouches and recovers two 100 USD bank notes that were concealed in a silver wrapping placed cleverly inside the small gutkha pouch.
#WATCH | AIU officials of Kolkata Customs intercepted a passenger scheduled to depart to Bangkok yesterday. A search of his checked-in baggage resulted in the recovery of US $40O00 (worth over Rs 32 lakh) concealed inside Gutkha pouches: Customs pic.twitter.com/unxgdR7jSu
— ANI (@ANI) January 9, 2023
“He was scheduled to depart to Bangkok after immigration formalities. We intercepted him and during the search of his checked-in baggage, we found that he was smuggling dollars. The search resulted in the recovery of $40,000 concealed inside gutkha pouches,” a Customs official said.
The recovered foreign currency has been seized under section 110 of the Customs Act, while the passenger has been arrested under section 104 of the Customs Act.
According to reports, the passenger was set to leave for Bangkok on Sunday (January 8) when he was intercepted by the department on the basis of intelligence inputs. When his luggage was checked, US dollar currency notes were discovered concealed within the gutkha pouches.
