A beauty pageant runner-up and bank employee arrested in Mumbai with 11.8 kg of hydroponic weed. The case spotlights India's rising airport drug seizures and employee misconduct risks.
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A 29-year-old bank employee and beauty pageant runner-up was arrested at Mumbai Airport early Thursday for allegedly smuggling 11.8 kg of hydroponic weed worth ₹11.8 crore from Bangkok, a customs official said.
The accused, identified as Harsha Sunny, works as a relationship manager at a private bank. She was a contestant in a Kerala beauty pageant in 2025. Customs officers found 12 packets of hydroponic weed concealed in her trolley bag. Sunny told officials a person she met in Bangkok asked her to carry the bag to India. She was arrested under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act and remanded to judicial custody, the official added.
The case raises two lines of risk. First, bank employee screening: a relationship manager with direct access to clients and transactions is now tied to a drug smuggling network. If the investigation reveals she used her banking role to facilitate payments or laundering, the bank's exposure to regulatory and reputational damage grows. Second, the Mumbai Airport interception adds to a growing list of seizures at Indian airports. Customs and the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence recorded 549 narcotics cases at airports between April and October 2025, recovering drugs worth over ₹3,300 crore, data presented in Parliament shows.
The trend includes high-profile cases. In March 2025, Kannada actress Ranya Rao was arrested at Bengaluru airport for smuggling 14.2 kg of gold worth ₹102 crore. Her network allegedly moved over 100 kg of gold into India between 2024 and 2025, per The Hindu. That case also involved airport interceptions as a primary detection point.
What would confirm the risk is escalating: if the probe into Sunny's contacts leads to arrests of other bank employees or highlights a pattern of using beauty pageants as cover for couriers. The DRI's data already suggests these are not isolated. On the other hand, if Sunny's case is a one-off and the network is contained, the reputational spillover for the bank would be limited.
The investigation is ongoing. Customs officials said they are working to identify the person who gave Sunny the bag. No further arrests have been announced.
Sunny's arrest is the latest data point in a year that has seen Indian airports handle over 500 drug seizure cases, with contraband worth more than ₹3,300 crore intercepted.
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