Police arrested a youth with Indian Rs80 lakh in his possession near Hajarat Shahjalal International Airport at the capital’s Uttara area yesterday afternoon. This happened a day after Rs50 lakh was seized at the airport from a passenger coming from Pakistan.
Mohammad Alauddin, 30, was arrested around 1pm by a police team from Airport police station by setting up a check post at Kosaibari on the airport road, said Nisarul Arif, deputy commissioner of Uttara division of police.
“The money was found in Alauddin’s travel bag,” Arif said, adding: “He claimed he was given the bag by someone else to just carry.”
He also said: “We are verifying the sources of the currencies to know whether the money was being smuggled into the country or was being smuggled out.”
However, he could not confirm whether the notes were original or fake.
However, Inspector Shah Alam, OC of Airport police station, said they had arrested Alauddin while he had been leaving the airport area.
“The detained man has been giving contradictory information to us. Sometimes he says a woman gave him the bag containing the currencies. Other times he says he was given the bag by a man from Haji Camp at Ashkona. We have yet to know the details about the woman,” he said.
Earlier on Saturday morning, the Customs Intelligence and Investigation Directorate (CIID) personnel arrested a youth with Rs50 lakh in his possession right after his flight landed from Pakistan.
According to the Customs Department officials, almost 95% of the Indian currency seized at the airport – by arresting around 150 people, mainly Pakistani nationals – were found to be fake.
