Kerala - Thiruvananthapuram   

Smuggling takes a new form

Smugglers in the city are `buying' passports of Gulf returnees for importing consumer items as unaccompanied baggage through the international airport here, according to police sources.

The racketeers use the passports to avail themselves of customs duty concession for the imported items under the Transfer of Residence (TR) rules applicable only to bona fide Non-Resident Indians (NRIs) coming to settle in the country after their tenure abroad.

Televisions, mobile phones, air-conditioners and DVD players thus imported are sold as `duty paid' goods through shops selling foreign goods in the city, a police official said. The police had information that in Manacaud, Poonthura and Beemapally areas, agents of smugglers were paying up to Rs.5,000 for the passport of a person who has returned from the Gulf.

The copies of the passports would be sent by the smugglers to their partners in the Gulf. They would buy consumer durables and send it as unaccompanied baggage to the International Airport here in the name of the passport holder. At the airport, the passport holder would clear the goods in his name for the smugglers after availing himself of the 75 per cent duty concession on consumer items offered to passengers who are transferring their residence to the country from abroad.

An official said the lucrative racket was being done with the connivance of a section of cargo clearance agents and corrupt elements in the Customs Department. The passport holder was just a `name lender' and the baggage actually belonged to the smugglers.

Sources in the Airport said that it was possible to check the smuggling if there was an earnest effort on the part of the authorities concerned to verify the quantity, type and actual value of the goods for which TR concession was given. "The baggage should be thoroughly inspected before being cleared," he said.

The smuggling racket is also believed to be linked to forged passport rackets in the city. A person who has used his passport to import foreign goods under the TR rules cannot travel abroad for a specified period. Hence, he obtains another passport under a different name and address.

Recently, the police found that three persons in the airport area had furnished false details to get police clearance for issue of passport. The cases came to light during a counter-verification of the passport clearance reports by the City Police Commissioner's office.

A senior official said an inquiry was on into possible connivance on the part of the policemen who conducted the verification. The City Special Branch handled more than 400 police verifications for passport issue a month. This was in addition to other enquiries conducted by the unit.

"This is the first time such cases have surfaced in the past two-and-a-half years. There might be a few cases which have escaped our notice also. The police passport verification process has been further tightened to prevent any lapse," he said.

It is pointed out that passport verification is very difficult in some coastal areas of the district where some houses do not even have `TC' numbers. In one case, the police found that a 16-year-old youth from Poonthura had gone to the Gulf using a passport taken in the name of his 26-year-old uncle. This was because the minimum age for job in the Gulf is 18. A few years later, the uncle posed as his nephew to get a passport.

During the verification, the family member and neighbours had misrepresented the facts before the enquiring officer and produced records such as ration cards to prove their claim. It is also learned that the police have reported to the Government that many of the shops selling foreign goods in the Poonthura area have no sales tax or corporation registration.

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