Officials of Directorate of Customs Intelligence and Investigation (DCII) arrested a man with Rs50 lakh equivalent to Tk65 lakh at Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport yesterday morning.
The arrested was identified as Mohammad Idris, 32, of Fulgazi upazila in Feni district.
Meanwhile, six expatriates were held with 1,341 grams of gold at the airport on Friday night.
Since smuggling of gold, currencies, precious metals and other valuables through the airport is rampant, customs officials and police have seized over 1,000kgs of gold and several thousand crores of currencies in recent times, sources said.
According to the officials, Idris was arrested with the Indian rupees shortly after his arrival in Dhaka from Pakistan via Dubai.
Assistant Commissioner of the DCII Ayesha Akhter said Idris was picked up from the green channel area of the airport around 10:15 am after he had arrived here from Pakistan by a flight of Air Arabia.
He went to Pakistan on April 3 on a business visa and returned to Dhaka via Sharjah, she added.
“During primary interrogation, the detainee claimed that some people gave him the currencies to carry from Pakistan to Dhaka,” she quoted Idris Ali as saying.
The man had returned to Dhaka via Sharjah with an attempt to dodge the eyes of law enforcers as passengers coming from Pakistan are usually treated with suspicion, she said.
However, she could not confirm whether the seized currencies were fake or real.
More than 90% of the Indian rupees coming from Pakistan and seized in Dhaka were found to be fake, said Kamrul Hasan, assistant commissioner of Customs Department.
Alamgir Hossain Shimul, senior assistant superintendent of the Armed Police Battalion (APBn), said the seized Indian rupees include notes of Rs500 and Rs1000.
Meanwhile, the six expatriates were arrested with gold from 10:00 pm to 11:30 pm on Friday after their arrival at Dhaka from Singapore and Kuala Lumpur by three separate flights.
The arrested were Hamidul Islam, Haider Sharif, Nadim Khandaker, Shah Alam Majumder, Ishaq Mia and Dipak Mandal.
Alamgir Hossain Shimul said the seized gold includes three bars and many bungles, chains and rings.
“The gold was seized by searching their bodies and luggage during their departure from the airport after their arrival at Dhaka,” he added.
