Jt Customs commissioner transferred

November 28: T R Malik, joint commissioner of Customs at the international airport, has been transferred to the Customs, Excise and Gold Control Appellate Tribunal CGAT following the arrest of a passenger on Thursday night. The passenger, who had allegedly smuggled 1,300 mobile handsets worth nearly Rs 1.5 crore, is believed to have telephoned Malik on his cellular phone when Customs officials insisted on screening his baggage on the X-ray machine.

Sources also revealed that Malik had been in touch with one Sarbans Singh, the contact man who had come to receive the passenger. The passenger was an alleged carrier of mobile phones and Thursday8217;s was his third trip abroad this month, investigations revealed. He had made 11 trips abroad last year alone.

The assistant Customs commissioner on duty insisted that the bags be screened though the passenger claimed he had nothing to declare. Malik had allegedly told his staff that he was expecting a friend, and that he should be welcomed8217;.

The assistantcommissioner8217;s firmness is seen as a telling effect of Chief Commissioner of Customs G S Tampi8217;s new drive to clean up the department following searches by the Central Bureau of Investigation at the Air Cargo Complex last week.

Malik will now work as a departmental representative at the Customs, Excise and Gold Control Appellate Tribunal, which is the tribunal for Customs cases. CGAT is considered a dry posting, quite contrary to the much hankered-after airport posting.