Passenger with USD 15,000 'hawala money' held

Chennai, Sep 1 (UNI) Sleuths of Air-Intelligence, attached to the Airport customs, today disembarked a Singapore-bound passenger and seized 15,000 US dollars from him, allegedly meant for hawala transactions.

According to the Customs sources, after a anonymous telephone caller said that a passenger travelling in the Singapore-bound IC 555 flight, was carrying ''hawala money'', Air-intelligence personnel launched a search and held one Mohideen Mozafer (34).

The passenger, hailing from Opilan village in Ramanathapuram district, was seen wearing a 'dhoti' and concealed the US dollars, in Rs 100 denomination in the belt.

Customs Commissioner Rajan said the passenger, on interrogation, contradicted himself. He was arrested and remanded to judicial custody, he said.

Replying to a question, Mr Rajan doubted that the US dollars could be part of a hawala transaction.

The flight, which was to leave for Singapore at 1250 hrs last night, left only at 0830 hrs this morning, following a technical snag.

UNI