Mumbai: The Air Intelligence Unit (AIU) of Airport Customs on Sunday arrested a 31-year-old man for allegedly smuggling Hydroponic Weed worth Rs 9.53 crore from Bangkok.
The AIU officers had intercepted one passenger Kawaljit Singh, a resident of Amritsar, Punjab on the basis of profiling that he might be carrying some contraband items, after he arrived at CSMI Airport, Mumbai on Sunday from Bangkok.
During the search of his trolley bag, the Customs officers found stuffed 20 transparent packets containing greenish coloured dry leafy substance in it. On testing the same it showed positive result for Hydroponic weed (Cannabis), a substance covered under Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act.
Thereafter, the contents of all other similar vacuum sealed packets were tested using Field Testing Kit, which also were found to be positive for presence of Hydroponic weed (Cannabis).
The officer then weighed the total greenish coloured dry leafy substance, which resulted into recovery of total net weight 9532 grams of greenish coloured dry leafy substance in lumps form purported to be Ganja, which was seized on the reasonable belief that it was being smuggled into India.
"Kawaljit Singh in his statement admitted that he was aware that smuggling of Ganja and other illegal drugs into India attracts stringent punishment as per laws prevalent in India. However, he was getting handsome amount of quick and easy money in lieu of smuggling the contraband to India. In the instant case, 9532 gms of Ganja valued Rs. 9.53 crore in illicit market has been recovered and seized from Kawaljit Singh," said a Customs officer.
"The preliminary investigation carried out so far in accordance with the law and the statement given by the accused disclose involvement of other persons who are yet to be traced. The investigations in the case are at a very preliminary stage and efforts are also being made to identify and apprehend key associates of the accused," the officer said.
Advocates Arun Gupta and Ashish Singh argued for the accused in the court following which the accused was remanded to judicial custody.
