Morung Express News
Dimapur | November 22
Nagaland caught the attention of the national media on November 22 after the discovery of a huge amount of cash in a chartered plane at Dimapur Airport. Security personnel at the airport found Rs. 3.5 crores in the non-schedule chartered plane that originated from Haryana.
Initial reports stated that the plane had one passenger, reportedly a Haryana-based businessman. The cash, reportedly demonetised notes, was discovered during security check by CISF personnel after the plane landed. Income Tax officials were alerted who arrived at the airport to investigate.
As per the reports, during the scrutiny, an unnamed Naga businessman turned up at the airport with documents validating the cash. After the verification, the cash was released and the plane took off along with the lone passenger and a few others.
Dimapur airport and Income Tax officials confirmed the incident. An airport official disclosed that the plane with the lone passenger landed at around 10:00 am. As per the official, CISF personnel guarding the airport had prior information of the plane carrying a huge unspecified amount of cash.
Citing the ‘seizure memo’ of the CISF, the official said that the cash amounted to Rs. 3.5 crores, while adding it was not indicated whether it was demonetised currency or not. After the scrutiny of the IT officials, the plane took off at around 1:00 pm with the lone passenger and three more boarding from Dimapur, the official informed. It was added that it could not be established whether the cash was released or confiscated.
A Dimapur-based Income Tax official corroborated the discovery of the cash through a tip-off but denied the direct involvement of IT branch in Dimapur. The official said that the CISF personnel at the airport were tipped off by the ‘investigation wing’ of the IT in Guwahati.
He added that the IT branch office in Dimapur came to know of it only after one of its field inspectors was intimated by the regional IT office in Guwahati. The inspector went to the airport as demanded by protocol to record the incident and not to investigate, the official maintained. The offcial further declined to comment as to the status of the cash.
