Kerala model held at Mumbai airport with 11.824 kg of Bangkok hydroponic marijuana
Customs officers at Mumbai's international airport arrested Harsha Sunny, a 28-year-old model and Mrs Kerala Global 2025 runner-up, after a flight from Bangkok on 11 June 2026. They found 12 vacuum-sealed packets holding 11.824 kg of hydroponic marijuana, valued at Rs 11.82 crore, and a court remanded her to 14 days in judicial custody.
🇮🇳 Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport, Mumbai · India
Arrested
1
Cannabis
11.824 kg
Agency
Air Intelligence Unit (AIU) of the Customs Department
Harsha Sunny, a 28-year-old model, was arrested at Mumbai airport as she flew
from Bangkok to India carrying over 11 kg of high-quality hydroponic marijuana.[1]The arrest came on 11 June 2026 at Mumbai’s Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj
International Airport, and she is a woman from Wayanad in Kerala.[2]She was
first runner-up in the Mrs Kerala Global 2025 pageant and also works as a
relationship manager with a private bank.[2]She also works as a relationship
manager with a private bank.[2]Officers of the airport’s Air Intelligence
Unit intercepted her at about 4 a.m. as Thai Airways flight TG-351 arrived from
Bangkok, acting on Advance Passenger Information profiling of her travel
pattern.[2]A personal search in the presence of a gazetted officer found no
contraband on her person.[2]
In a checked-in trolley bag, officers found 12 vacuum-sealed packets, five
black-and-transparent and seven transparent.[2]The packets held green
flowering and fruiting tops of cannabis, which a field test with an NDPS kit
confirmed as ganja, or hydroponic weed.[2]The haul weighed 11.824 kg, which
Customs valued at Rs 11.82 crore in the illicit market.[3]Under the NDPS Act,
ganja above one kilogram counts as a commercial quantity.[2]
She was formally arrested at 9 a.m. and booked under several provisions of the
NDPS Act.[2]A court in Mumbai’s Fort area remanded her to judicial custody,
with the Chief Judicial Magistrate’s court at Esplanade setting 14 days.[2]Her advocate said she had travelled to Bangkok for tourism and modelling work,
befriended a man there who asked her to carry gifts for his family, and was
handed the bag at the airport with no chance to check its contents.[2]
Case data
Every number and detail the sources state, with the sources that state it.
Arrested
1
Cannabis
11.824 kg
Value (official estimate)
INR 118,240,000
Agency
Air Intelligence Unit (AIU) of the Customs Department
Agency type
Customs
Cannabis
Herbal cannabis (11.824 kg)
Activity
Smuggling
Setting
Airport
Charge
NDPS Act sections 20(b)(ii)(B), 23(b), 28, 29, 30, 35 and 54 read with section 8(c)
Case stage
Charged
Region
Maharashtra
Route
Thailand → India
Sources
Firstpostfirstpost.comWho is Harsha Sunny, the model who was arrested for carrying high quality 'hydroponic marijuana?'
The South Firstthesouthfirst.comDrug mule or victim? Kerala model's arrest with hydro weed puts spotlight on Thai smuggling route
Reports disagree on Harsha Sunny's age, giving 28 in the Firstpost, India Today and South First accounts and 29 in The Indian Express; the report uses 28.
The Indian Express states the seizure as 11,824 kilograms and The South First as 11.824 grams in places, both evidently typographical errors for 11.824 kg, the figure used here.
India Today describes the flight as Air India TG-351 while The South First names Thai Airways TG-351; the report follows the South First account.
Only a field test with an NDPS kit confirmed the substance; no laboratory examination result was reported.
Whether Sunny knowingly carried the contraband is unresolved: her advocate says she was deceived by a man she met in Bangkok, while investigators suspect a link to a wider trafficking network.
No charge sheet, bail order, trial date or verdict has been reported; the case is at the remand stage.
Left out, as its quotation was not found in India Today: Investigators are tracing the consignment's intended destination and possible links to a wider trafficking network.
Left out, as its quotation was not found in India Today: Sunny was produced before a court in Mumbai's Fort area, which remanded her to judicial custody.
Kangra district police's CIA team arrested two men from Chamba district with 1.107 kg of charas in the Sokru Dam area of Baijnath. A case was registered under the NDPS Act at Baijnath police station, and police said they were questioning the men about the source of the charas and where it was to be supplied.
Police in Sirari bazaar in Bihar's Sheikhpura district seized 150 grams of ganja from a paan stall and arrested Doman Singh, also known as Prabhakar Singh. The stall stands on Purana Station Road within 500 metres of an educational institution, and the station chief said an FIR was registered under the NDPS Act.
Bandipora police arrested two men travelling on a scooty at Gunchipora near Bakshi Bund on 11 November 2026 and recovered 914 grams of a suspected cannabis powder-like substance from them. Police registered FIR No. 244/2026 at Police Station Sumbal under the NDPS Act and said they were investigating the source of the contraband and its supply links.
Police in Station Ghanpur, Jangaon district, Telangana, arrested four men accused of selling dried ganja, including the man who bought some, and seized 40 grams of the drug, a mobile phone and 1,000 rupees in cash. Circle Inspector S. Srinivas said a case was registered against the four and they were remanded to judicial custody.
