A Nigerian national was detained in the city airport here on Friday with Rs.58 lakh cash in new currency notes.

Based on a specific information that Tochukwo Chijiko was travelling from Delhi, from where the money was detected, sleuths from Directorate of Revenue Intelligence took him to custody on his arrival by a private airlines at the city airport, police said.

Preliminary inquiry by officials, including those from Income Tax Department, revealed that he had come to the city to go to Tirupur to carry out knitwear business.

He is being interrogated about the source of the currencies in huge quantity. Of the total cash seized Rs.53.78 lakh were in new currency and Rs.4.9 lakh in old currency, police added.