MUMBAI, June 13 -- A Kerala-based banker and beauty pageant participant accused of attempting to smuggle hydroponic weed worth Rs.11.82 crore into India has approached a special Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act court for bail, her lawyer said. Her defence contends that she had unknowingly carried the bag after being persuaded by a person she met during a trip to Bangkok, her lawyer said. Air Intelligence Unit (AIU) of Mumbai Customs arrested Harsha Sunny, 28, after allegedly recovering 11.824kg of the contraband from her checked-in baggage at Mumbai airport after she arrived from Bangkok on a Thai Airways flight. According to Customs, Sunny was intercepted after she was flagged through Advance Passenger Information System (APIS) profiling. While searches of her person, handbag and cabin baggage yielded nothing suspicious, officials allegedly found 12 vacuum-sealed packets containing a green-coloured substance suspected to be hydroponic weed inside her trolley bag. The agency has valued the seized contraband at around Rs.11.82 crore in the illegal market. According to her lawyer, advocate Prabhakar Tripathi, investigators sought 14 days' custody, but the magistrate's court remanded her to judicial custody. Sunny has now approached the sessions court seeking bail. Tripathi claimed his client had travelled to Bangkok for tourism and to explore opportunities in modelling and nail art. According to the defence, a person who befriended Sunny during her trip allegedly gained her confidence and persuaded her to carry a bag to India. "This appears to be a classic case of an unsuspecting traveller being exploited by organised traffickers," Tripathi said. "Our client's consistent case is that she had no knowledge of any illegal contents. We urge not to rush to conclusions while the investigation is still in progress." Customs has booked Sunny under various provisions of the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act. The agency told the court that the probe is at a preliminary stage and efforts are under way to identify and apprehend her alleged associates....