Indian minister detained for flouting currency ban

KATHMANDU - India avoided a potentially embarrassing situation in neighbouring Nepal after a minister from its north-eastern Nagaland state was detained at the international airport in Kathmandu Wednesday for flouting a currency ban that is punishable with a fine and imprisonment.

Imkong L. Imchen, the home minister of Nagaland, had to miss his morning flight back to New Delhi and cool his heels in Kathmandu for almost six hours after he was detained at the Tribhuvan International Airport for carrying almost Rs.900,000 in currency notes of denominations of Rs.500 and Rs.1,000, which are banned outside India.

Imchen, who won the 2008 election as a member of the Nagaland People’s Front party from Koridang, was held while trying to board the Jet Airways flight from Kathmandu to New Delhi after a security check revealed he was carrying the banned currency notes.

Over a decade ago, India’s apex bank, the Reserve Bank of India, banned the transaction of 500 and 1000 Indian rupee notes outside India in a bid to crack down on the mushrooming counterfeit Indian currency racket with major hubs in Pakistan, Bangladesh and Nepal.

Carrying the banned notes in Nepal is a punishable offence that can merit up to five years in prison or a fine or both.

The Indian minister had made an incognito visit to Nepal with his wife and two sons on June 27 to attend a wedding.

Though it was a personal visit, the minister flouted the regulation in his own country that says all government officials going abroad have to inform the appropriate government authorities.

While Imchen’s wife Alila and sons Sungtikumba and Daochier were allowed to catch the 9.30 a.m. flight to New Delhi, the minister was detained for questioning.

Warned by the ministry of external affairs in New Delhi, the Indian Embassy rushed a senior official to the airport to talk with the immigration authorities.

After the embassy official vouchsafed that Imchen was a minister and the money had been carried in the banned notes due to his ignorance of the ban, he was cleared for the 3.45 p.m. Jet Airways flight to New Delhi.

In November, two women from another northeast Indian state, Mizoram, landed in trouble at a domestic airport in Nepal after they were found to be carrying the banned Indian currency.

Lalring Heti, 41, and Lal Moonbami, 37, were arrested at the airport in Bhadrapur in eastern Nepal while trying to catch a flight to Kathmandu after they were found to be carrying Rs.195,000 in currency notes of denominations of Rs.500 and Rs.1,000.

Despite the ban, Indian tourists continue to be ignorant of it and there have been frequent cases of detentions at Nepal airports.