Delhi: The Jet Airways, Air Hostess have been arrested by the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) at the Indira Gandhi International Airport, Delhi for allegedly attempting to smuggle foreign currency worth more than Rs. 3 Crores. The accused Air Hostess was part of a major global Hawala syndicate.
The DRI officials stopped the Air Hostess, when she was flying to Hong Kong on Monday, the agency said in a statement. That During the investigation of check-in and hand luggage, It has been recovered 4,80,200 US Dollars wrapped in aluminum foil with a market value of 3.25 Crores.
During the interrogation, it was discovered that the woman was a carrier for a major international Hawala syndicate and took foreign currencies, several times for Delhi-based Hawala operators, the operator, who is identified as Amit Malhotra, is a resident of Vivek Vihar area of Delhi, the Malhotra would smuggle foreign currency and country with the help of airline crew members, a senior DRI official said.
The officer said, “Amit Malhotra will collect money from some bullion dealers in Delhi and send it through some Air hostess to select foreign destinations, money was being used for gold purchase abroad, then gold will be sent illegally to India.
The Hawala operators became friends during the flight to India, six months ago with a Jet Airways team. The DRI suspects that some other Jet Airways crew can also join the smuggling of foreign currency, the official said.
The Amit Malhotra illegally smuggles foreign currency for more than a year, some other crew members are involved in this case. We are also trying to find out details of the bullion dealers involved in this syndicate. Both the members of the crew of Malhotra and Jet Airways have been arrested, the official said.
The Delhi court sent the two accused persons to two days in judicial custody. The DRI has recovered Rs. 3.3 Lakh Cash and foreign currencies of different countries equal to USD 2,500, besides several incriminating materials from Malhotra.