Customs Intelligence and Investigation Directorate (CIID) personnel have arrested a man with Rs50 lakh equivalent to Tk65 lakh at the Hajarat Shahjalal International Airport on Saturday morning.
The arrestee was identified as Mohammad Idris, 32.
Assistant Commissioner of the CIID Ayesha Akhter said: “Idris was arrested around 10:15am at the green channel area of the airport after he arrived on a flight of the Air Arabia from Pakistan en-route Sharjah in Dubai.”
She said: “Hailing from Fulgazi upazila in Feni district, Idris Ali had gone to Pakistan on April 3 on a business visa and returned to Dhaka via Sharjah with the currency.”
“During primary interrogation, the detainee claimed that he had been given the currencies by some other persons just to carry the currencies from Pakistan to Dhaka,” she added.
Asked, CIID official Ayesha said, “The person had returned to Dhaka via Sharjah just for an attempt to dodge the eyes of the law enforcers as passengers coming from Pakistan are usually treated with more suspicion than other passengers.”
However, she could not confirm whether the seized currencies were fake or real.
More than 90% of the Indian currencies coming from Pakistan and seized at Dhaka were found to be fake, said Kamrul Hasan, another assistant commissioner of the Customs Department.
Senior assistant superintendent of the Armed Police Battalion (APBn) at the airport said the seized Indian currencies were the notes of Rs500 and Rs1000.
Earlier, six persons have been held along with 1300 grams of smuggled gold at Hajarat Shahjalal International Airport in the capital on Friday night.