A person carrying a leopard cub in his baggage was detained at the Chennai international airport on Saturday morning on arrival from Thailand. He was handed over, along with the cub, to the Tamil Nadu Forest Department for further inquiry.
Based on intelligence inputs that said prohibited wild animals may be smuggled from Thailand, officers of the Air Intelligence Unit (AIU) had been maintaining a vigil at the Customs arrival hall.
On Saturday, AIU officers noticed the detained passenger moving in a suspicious manner in the arrival area. They observed that after collecting his checked-in luggage, he was walking away very quickly with some faint sounds emanating from the baggage. He was intercepted after he crossed the green channel and brought to the AIU office room for questioning.
From his boarding pass and passport, he was identified as Kaja Moideen (45), who arrived from Bangkok by a Thai Airways flight.