Excise and customs officers have seized in Manjeshwara cash worth Rs 1.2 crore that was being illegally transported from Mangaluru to Kasargod in a car.

The officers have arrested two men. They had waylaid vehicles at Manjeshwara and seized Rs 1.2 crore cash from Ramachandra Patil of Maharashtra. All the seized currencies were in denominations of Rs 500 and Rs 2,000.

During interrogation, Patil reportedly confessed to officials on having carried the cash to a gold dealer in Kasargod. Based on the information given by him, officials raided a house at Talangara in Kasargod and seized gold bars weighing more than 1.50 kg from the house owner Kunnu Basheer (55). It is suspected that gold ingots were being smuggled illegally to Kerala from Dubai.