The Hindu : Front Page : CBI raids customs zone at Karipur

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Nov 04, 2005

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CBI raids customs zone at Karipur

Staff Reporter

Says huge sum of unaccounted money seized

MALAPPURAM: The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) raided the customs zone at the Calicut Airport, Karipur, from Wednesday evening to Thursday afternoon.

The agency officials said unaccounted money, estimated at several lakhs of rupees, had been seized in the raid.

Houses raided

The houses of three customs employees in Kozhikode were raided simultaneously. The CBI reportedly found illegally acquired properties from the houses.

The officials said Indian currency estimated at a little over Rs.3 lakhs was seized. They said the search was conducted on receiving specific information about harassment of passengers by Customs staff at the airport.

Extortion of money

The extortion of money from Gulf returnees had increased during Ramzan, they added.

The raid team searched the customs area and a duty-free shop run by the India Tourism Development Corporation, and found bundles of Indian and foreign currencies, they said.

According to the officials, the team seized Rs.1.5 lakhs from the handbag of a woman Customs officer.

A bundle of Rs.40,000, meant for distribution to two other officers, was seized from a drawer. A sum of Rs.18,000 was seized from a Customs inspector.

The search team picked up $500 and BD (Bahrain Dinar) 500 from different desks. From the duty-free shop, the team got unaccounted currency for Rs.45,000 and $500. Sources at the airport said that only a small sum had been remitted to the bank from the shop on Wednesday.

The CBI team booked two Customs officers on the charge of demanding bribe from the passengers of Air-India Express's Abu Dhabi-Kozhikode flight IX-334.

Casual labourer held

The personnel of the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) detained a former casual labourer, V. P. Vijayan, for trespassing into the security area. He was picked up from the arrival hall.

The CISF officials said he was suspected to be having links with many customs officers. Vijayan had managed to sneak in using his expired identity card. He was arrested by the local police and a case for trespassing registered against him.

Meanwhile, the police seized 50 bottles of foreign liquor after raiding a house at Kanhiraparamba near the airport.

The police said the bottles were believed to have been smuggled out of the duty-free shop. No one was, however, held in connection with that.

Top CBI officials said that they had waited for a few weeks after having been informed about fleecing of passengers.

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