Contraband consignments vanish from IGIA

NEW DELHI, July 17: Customs officials are flummoxed by 67 consignments which, they allege, went missing between December 1997 and June 19...

NEW DELHI, July 17: Customs officials are flummoxed by 67 consignments which, they allege, went missing between December 1997 and June 1998 under mysterious circumstances from the Cargo Terminal at the Indira Gandhi International Airport. These consignments had arrived from Hong Kong in the name of three bogus companies which served as a front for smuggling in gold.

Customs officials suspect that the 67 consignments may have contained gold worth crores of rupees. The customs department could lay its hand on only one such consignment containing 600 gold biscuits and some computer parts valued at Rs 2.95 crore. This was seized at the Cargo Terminal on June 17. Further investigations conducted by the customs revealed that the three companies, which were supposed to claim the consignment, did not even exist.

These three companies, Marita Enterprises, Essen Impex and Adhikar Enterprises, are shown as being based in Chittranjan Park in Delhi but customs raids at the premises revealed that these companies were fictitious. The Airport Authority of India AAI, which is the custodian of every consignment, did not have much to say on the matter.

8220;We have been told about it, and our officials have been issued summons by the customs. But we don8217;t know anything about these missing consignments,8221; general manager, cargo, AAI P.K. Barat said.

Officials of both the customs and the AAI are, however, tight-lipped over the disappearance of the 67 consignments. When contacted, customs commissioner, air cargo, Dalbir Singh said : 8220;Who told you about it8230; I have no comments to make.8221;

According to sources, the AAI8217;s airport records had registered the location of the 67 consignments which were unloaded and kept in the warehouse. It was found that between December 1997 and June 1998, the 67 consignments belonging to the three bogus companies were brought from Hong Kong. They were kept in the warehouse for some time and then mysteriously disappeared without any Bill of entry.

The airlines had filed a manifest8217; for the 67 consignments and a copy of each of these manifests was handed over to the AAI and the manifest department of the customs. Each consignment leaves the warehouse only after a Bill of entry is filled by the customs and the AAI based on the manifest which, a source claims, was not done in this case.

Story continues below this ad

8220;This is a serious lapse, as the consignment could have contained anything from arms to gold, no one knows,8221; said a senior customs official, requesting anonymity. These consignments were to undergo several checks by the AAI and the customs, how the consignees were able to dodge all these and get away with it is perplexing, said the sources.