A 29-year-old employee of a private bank and runner-up in a beauty contest was arrested at the Mumbai airport by Customs on Thursday for allegedly smuggling 11.8 kg of hydroponic weed valued at ₹11.8 crore into India from Bangkok.
The woman, Harsha Sunny, landed at the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport (CSMIA) in the early hours of Thursday, an official said, news agency PTI reported.
Sunny arrived in Mumbai from Bangkok on the intervening night of June 10-11 on Air India flight TG-351, India Today reported. She was stopped by the Air Intelligence Unit (AIU) and the Customs Department after they became suspicious of her behaviour during routine checking.
When the officials searched her bag, they allegedly found 12 vacuum-sealed packets containing a green substance and an on-the-spot chemical test conducted using a Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) kit confirmed the substance to be high-grade hydroponic marijuana.
Sunny reportedly works as a relationship manager with a private bank and was contestant at a beauty pageant held in Kerala last year. Twelve packets of hydroponic weed were reportedly found concealed in her trolley bag.
However, Sunny claimed innocence and said that a person befriended her during her foreign trip and asked her to carry the bag to India, the official said.
She was arrested under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act and produced before a court which sent her in judicial custody, according to officials.
Probe is underway to identify other persons linked to the drug network, police said.
