Minissha Lamba detained at airport for carrying jewellery worth Rs 50 lakh

Minissha Lamba was detained at the airport yesterday. The actress was kept back for bringing jewellery worth approximately Rs 50 lakh while returning from Cannes, France.

She arrived by an Emirates flight yesterday morning from Nice via Dubai.

The actress walked the red carpet at the Cannes film festival last week. But the same red carpet treatment was not meted out to her here at the international airport.

She has been charged with carrying R 50 lakh worth of jewellery above the permitted limit and was detained by custom officials.

She spent the afternoon being questioned about the bling. She was arrested for this. A statement will be recorded and a case will be registered against her, too.

At the time of going to press no one her lawyer, her spokesperson, her family or the media was allowed to meet the actress.

What the customs say....
Minissha Lamba was stopped while walking through the green channel at Mumbai airport yesterday. Sameer Wankhede, deputy commissioner, Customs, and his team intercepted the actress.

According to a senior customs officer, "We got a tip-off about her carrying jewellery above the permissible limit. We intercepted her at the green channel.

We have been interrogating the actress. In case of jewllery worth up to R 5 lakh we give bail on the grounds of being personal jewellery but as she was carrying jewels worth Rs 50 lakh, she had to be detained. She will be produced in court today."

Minissha's missing bag at Nice airport

On her way back to Mumbai, Minissha Lamba found one of her bags missing at Nice airport. The actress had been tweeting about her loss on the micro-blogging site...

"Disaster has struck. A baggage of mine has been stolen at Nice airport. I can't believe something like this has happened.

The reason they won't go over the CCTV footage is that there is nothing recorded on it. Sadly, something like this has happened during the festival.

If it was 'stolen' or 'misplaced'. For some reason, they are just refusing to confirm via their CCTV. Standing at the Emirates counter for one hour.

Even with two CCTV camera's right over the baggage, police or airline still won't confirm."