Two Afghani women held with $76,500 at Delhi airport

The crime came to light around 1.30pm when a CISF personnel deployed at the security hold area of Terminal 3 spotted a suspicious image of a hand baggage belonging to a woman travelling to Kabul by a Kam Airlines flight.

Two Afghani women were arrested by the customs from the Indira Gandhi International Airport (IGIA) on Wednesday for allegedly trying to smuggle out $76,500 (about ₹55.6 lakh). Officials said the currency was concealed in sweet boxes and the women were apprehended during the security checks.

Officials from the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) on Thursday identified the women as Mahmooda Sediqi and Estorai Qayomi, both from Afghanistan. (Getty Images/iStockphoto)

Officials from the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) on Thursday identified the women as Mahmooda Sediqi and Estorai Qayomi, both from Afghanistan. The crime came to light around 1.30pm when a CISF personnel deployed at the security hold area of Terminal 3 spotted a suspicious image of a hand baggage belonging to a woman travelling to Kabul by a Kam Airlines flight.

“Her bag was selected for manual screening and during checking, $40,000 in four bundles were found neatly concealed inside soan papdi (sweet) boxes. Another pouch recovered from the same woman had $6,500 concealed in it,” the CISF said in a statement issued on Thursday.

The woman was later identified as Mahmooda Sediqi. CISF said, “Later, on checking CCTV footage, another Afghani woman passenger, later identified as Estorai Qayomi, also bound for Kabul by the same flight, was intercepted near the boarding gate area. She was also asked to cooperate for a detailed baggage check during which $30,000 were recovered from her. Since both the women could not produce any valid document to carry such a huge amount of foreign currency, the matter was reported to the customs. Both women along with the recovered $76,500 were handed over to custom officials for further probe,” the statement said.

A senior customs officer from Delhi airport said the two women were arrested and the recovered cash was seized.