Model, banker, drug mule? Beauty pageant runner-up held with Rs 11.82 crore hydroponic weed at Mumbai airport

MUMBAI: A 29-year-old woman, a relationship manager with a private bank and runner-up in a beauty contest last year, was arrested on Thursday morning by the customs authorities for smuggling 11.824 kg of hydroponic weed worth Rs 11.82 crore into India from Bangkok.

The woman, Harsha Sunny, in her defence told customs that a person who befriended her during the trip allegedly gained her confidence and persuaded her to carry a bag to India. Sunny was intercepted at around 4 am Thursday at the airport on her arrival from Bangkok. Officials, on the basis of passenger profiling, suspected that she could be carrying contraband items.

According to sources, her personal search was conducted before a gazetted officer under the provisions of the NDPS Act, but no contraband was found on her person. However, during a detailed examination of her baggage, officers recovered 12 vacuum-sealed packets concealed inside a trolley bag.

Officials said the packets contained green-coloured flowering and fruiting tops of the cannabis plant, suspected to be hydroponic weed (ganja). The substance tested positive using the NDPS field testing kit.

Customs officials stated that the seized hydroponic weed had an estimated illicit market value of Rs 11.82 crore. Harsha Sunny was arrested under provisions of the NDPS Act and was produced before the NDPS court, which remanded her to judicial custody.

Investigators informed the court that the probe is at a preliminary stage and efforts are underway to identify other persons linked to the smuggling network.

Advocate Prabhakar Tripathi, appearing for Sunny, claimed that his client was unaware of the contents of the bag. “This appears to be a classic case of an unsuspecting traveller being exploited by organised traffickers. The young woman had visited Bangkok for tourism and to explore professional opportunities in the nail-art and modelling sectors.

A person who befriended her during the trip allegedly gained her confidence and persuaded her to carry a bag to India. Our client’s consistent case is that she had no knowledge of any illegal contents,” Tripathi said.