Excise official held under COFEPOSA

BANGALORE, July 23: The Karnataka Government has detained seven persons, including an official from the Customs and Central Excise Departme...

BANGALORE, July 23: The Karnataka Government has detained seven persons, including an official from the Customs and Central Excise Department, Bangalore and Lufthansa Airlines Manger Cargo for smuggling in about 30 kgs of gold and disposing it of in the open market.

The arrested, among others, were S S Ramakrishna, Superintendent, Central Excise and Uthappa, Manager Cargo Lufthansa Airlines, Bangalore. This is for the first time in the history of Bangalore Customs that an official has been booked under COFEPOSA. All the seven were arrested by the Customs soon after the gold worth Rs 1.5 crore was seized from a Lufthansa freighter from Sharjah on June 19. This is the biggest ever gold haul at the Bangalore airport.

After investigations, the Customs recommended to the State Government for their detention under COFEPOSA. On Monday, the Government accepted the recommendations and detained them. The modus operandi adopted by the gang was to load huge quantities of gold and other contraband, including sophisticated electronic gadgets, on the freighter. After the aircraft landed at the Bangalore airport, the consignments containing contraband used to be removed by the airline manager in connivance with the department official before it reached the Customs bond house. The two used to hand over the consignment to Yahya, a noted smuggler from Bhatkal in Uttara Kannada district, who would sell it in the open market through four traders.

Acting on a tip off, the Customs authorities laid a trap at the airport on June 19. As soon as the cargo from the Lufthansa freighter was being taken to Customs bond house outside the airport, the department official and the Lufthansa Cargo manager were caught clandestinely removing a piece of cargo containing 240 gold biscuits valued at Rs 1.5 crore and some other electronic gadgets, including two video cameras, into a waiting private van.

The spot interrogation of the two helped Customs Department to bust the gang involved in the entire operations. It is one of the rare occasions when the Customs authorities could encircle the entire group involved in the smuggling in India.

According to Customs sources, the gang has been perating in this fashion for quite sometime, though the exact number of landings is not known. It was only after a tip off, the preventive wing of the air customs swung into action and kept a close vigil on the movements of the department official and the cargo manager.

Once the seizure was made, it took hardly any time for the authorities to lay its hand on the other five members.

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About three months ago, the customs arrested three foreign nationals for smuggling in 30 kilos of gold biscuits concealed in their footwear. All the three have been detained under COFEPOSA. However, the customs could not bust the gang as the three were only used as carriers and did not know the consignee or the consigner.