A woman flight attendant of Jet Airways has been arrested for allegedly trying to smuggle out $480,200 out of India, news agency PTI reported citing an official statement.
The Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) on January 9 arrested Deveshi Kulshreshtha, 25, along with her agent Amit Malhotra, a resident of Vivek Vihar area in New Delhi.
Kulshreshtha has reportedly smuggled forex on at least seven previous occasions before getting caught on Sunday late night on board a Delhi-Hong Kong flight, said the report.
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Malhotra was using crew members as a mode of operation for smuggling of forex, the report said.
"Malhotra would collect money from some bullion dealers in Delhi and send it via some air hostess to select foreign destinations. The money was being used for purchasing gold abroad. The gold would then be sent to India illegally," the report quoted an unnamed DRI official as saying.
According to DRI, one of the methods used for money laundering was wrapping the money in aluminium foil to avoid detection.
Investigators said she used to get 1 percent of the total money she laundered as commission.
Jet Airways confirmed the incident on January 9.
"Based on the investigations and inputs from law enforcement agencies, the airline will take further action. The company has a strict code of conduct and zero tolerance towards any action of its employees that contravenes domestic or international laws of the countries in which it operates," the airlines said in a statement to the stock exchange.
