HC: Complete proceedings against stranded Saudi captain in 2 weeks

Bombay High Court (HC) asked Additional Commissioner, Customs, CSI Airport, on Wednesday to complete in two weeks proceedings against Saudi Arabian navy captain Bandar Huryab (32), booked for allegedly carrying fake Indian currency and stranded in the city for over five months.

Huryab claims he was not aware that the currency he procured from an authorised foreign exchange agency in Jeddah was counterfeit.

Police have refused to discharge the captain, who landed in Mumbai on April 25, despite producing receipt for the forex transaction.

Huryab said he came to India as a tourist and wished to return to his country to attend to his unwell mother.

He said he had used the money to pay for a pre-paid taxi at the airport. However, since the person at the counter did not have change, he went to a nearby forex counter where the person in-charge suspected the note to be fake. Huryab then went to a bank, which also suspected the note to be fake.

A customs officer then questioned Huryab, who claimed he voluntarily disclosed that he had Rs 45,000 in notes of Rs 500. All the notes he had were later found to be fake and Huryab was booked by customs and produced in the metropolitan court the next day.

Sahar Airport Police arrested him on April 30. However, on May 14, a sessions court granted him bail observing that prima facie knowledge or reasonable belief that the notes were fake could not be attributed to Huryab.

The captain said his father had initiated prosecution against forex agency Alamoudi Exchange in Saudi Arabia.

His lawyer Rizwan Merchant told HC Huryab was still to get a personal hearing despite filing for waiver of a show-cause notice issued by customs on June 11.

... contd.

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