Customs officials said Mirza landed in the city by a Thai Airways flight from Bangkok at around 2am. Instead of declaring the valuables in her bag at the red channel, the actor walked past the green channel meant for passengers with no dutiable goods. “She came to the customs counter and was passing through the green channel to exit the airport when she was stopped and asked to show the contents of her baggage,” a senior officer said. Mirza, who was intercepted by a batch of officers headed by assistant commissioner Sameer Wankhede, was reportedly carrying bags, cosmetics and clothes worth Rs `lakh.

As per rules, a passenger is allowed to carry imported goods worth only `25,000. If the value of the goods on a flyer is above this amount, he/she has to declare them and pay duty. “Mirza did not do that, and had she not been stopped, she would have left the airport without paying any duty,” another officer said. “The goods were imported from Bangkok and were way above the permissible limit.”

According to officials, Mirza pleaded ignorance of the customs rules and offered to pay the fine. “There were around 20 items which had been purchased abroad. Mirza produced the bills for all the items,” an officer said, adding the actor paid `1.25 lakh as penalty, duty and redemption fine and was allowed to leave at about 3.30am. “Had she declared the goods, she would have paid a duty of a few thousand rupees. The eventual penalty levied included the fine as well as the charge to reclaim the goods,” he said.

Last year, actors Minissha Lamba and Anushka Sharma were detained by customs officials for carrying undeclared jewellery. While Lamba was carrying diamond jewellery wroth `31 lakh, Sharma was detained with jewellery worth `35 lakh.