Rs 12.4m illegal currency seized at TIA
OCT 07 -
In an incident that puts security at the Tribhuvan International Airport to shame, nine different currencies totalling Rs 12.4 million were confiscated from a Fly Dubai aircraft about to take off on Friday night.
After one Ramesh Milan KC made a hoax telephone call to a TIA official at 7:30 pm, claiming that one of the planes scheduled to take flight Friday night contained a bomb, six international flights were evacuated and a thorough search conducted on all airplanes.
Two bomb disposal teams comprising of 45 army and police personnel each were brought into identify and defuse the alleged explosives, according to TIA General Manager Ratish Chandra Lal Suman.
However, the bomb was nowhere to be found. Instead, one Binod Kumar Soni, 35, was arrested from a restroom of a Fly Dubai aircraft, carrying a handbag containing a bundle of foreign notes. Soni, it has come to light, hails from Rajasthan, India and was residing in a rented apartment at Kuleshwor, Kathmandu. Among the seized currencies are 41,750 euro, 80,500 Swiss francs, 4,910 UK pounds sterling , 68,150 Qatari riyal, 1,731 Saudi riyal, 16,900 UAE dirham, 519 Omani riyal, 1,787 Kuwaiti dinar and 47 Bahraini dinar. As per the new monetary policy, a Nepali national can get up to $2,500 at a time as passport facility irrespective of frequency of travel abroad. Foreigners carrying more than $2,000 or equivalent in foreign currency are required to declare in the Customs Declaration Form at the time of arrival in Nepal. Those returning from Nepal with undeclared money exceeding $ 2,000 may be interrogated for further legal actions in accordance with Foreign Exchange Regulation Act of Nepal.
A passenger, while on the way to the respective airplane at TIA’s international terminal, usually has to go through four to five layers of strict security. According to Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Ravi Raj Shrestha, the security check first takes place at the clearance gate to the terminal and then at immigration. The other three security searches are conducted as the passenger moves towards the terminal to board the airplane. Altogether 307 police personnel, headed by a Deputy Inspector General (DIG), guard the TIA, the country’s only international aerodrome.
“Security checks are usually conducted manually,” said SSP Shrestha, adding that bags and luggage go through x-ray machines. “It is surprising how the currencies ended up on the plane.”
When asked about rumours that airport security personnel themselves must have been involved in the incident, Shrestha said nothing had been established so far. “We are investigating the case,” he said. “Nothing can be said until the probe is over.”
However, a high-level police source told the Post that it was virtually impossible for Soni to reach the plane with the money in tow. “This clearly indicates the involvement of senior police officials at TIA,” said the source on condition of anonymity. “One cannot cross all the security layers with that kind of money, so it is clear that Soni did not carry the money with him when he travelled from the terminal to the plane. There must have been a police official himself who handed over the bag just before Soni boarded the plane.”
According to the source, this case seriously calls into question the efficiency of TIA’s security mechanism.
Despite several attempts by the Post, TIA police chief DIG Narayan Bastakoti was not available for comment.
On January 22, 2011, TIA police had nabbed one Indra Prasad Thapa with 57,170 euro, 3,600 Singapore dollar and 9,782,000 Chinese yuan—totalling Rs 14.44 million during regular security checks at the terminal.
Source: The Kathmandu Post
