Forgery case: Financial fraud involving Custom officials busted
On Thursday, The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) arrested five Customs Superintendents and two clearing agents concerning an ongoing investigation of six forgery cases.
The arrested individuals have been identified as Kumar Alok, Keshav Pandhi, Hemant Gethe, Brijesh Kumar, Dinesh Kumar — all Superintendents of Customs, and Deepak Parekh and Ashish Kamdar (private persons).
An official said the CBI has registered separate cases against six Superintendents of Customs, Mumbai, two private individuals, and other unknown persons on the allegations that the said public servants a conspiracy with private persons during their posting at UB Centre, Jawaharlal Nehru Customs House, and misused the provision of “Transfer of Residence” under the Customs Act.
It was alleged that the said syndicate used the passports of various persons, who had stayed abroad for more than two years, especially in Gulf countries, to import multiple items including household items, electronic items, and other unknown items by firstly undervaluing the goods and further concealing some other undeclared items along with the other declared items.
“The goods imported should have been ideally imported for the person whose passport was declared before the Customs but the goods were actually imported for many other persons settled abroad and still living abroad. The passport holder was allegedly given Rs.15,000 for allowing his passport to be used. The syndicate adopted the said modus-operandi in connivance with the Customs officers,” the CBI said.
The official said that kickbacks allegedly paid to these Customs officers were around Rs.2.38 crore in lieu of clearing such illegal consignments.
Searches were conducted at 19 places in the premises of the accused and their accomplices, situated at Mumbai, Delhi, Ghaziabad, Jaipur, Motihari (Bihar), Kurukshetra, and Rohtak, which led to the recovery of various incriminating documents.
The arrested accused were presented before the Special Judge, CBI cases at Alibagh in Maharashtra. They were remanded to five days of CBI custody.
[With Inputs from IANS]
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