The Hindu : New Delhi News : Alleged fraudulent transfer of money in exporters' accounts

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Jul 23, 2006

New Delhi

New Delhi

Alleged fraudulent transfer of money in exporters' accounts

Special Correspondent

30 places raided by CBI in Delhi, Mumbai, Jaipur and Nawanshahr

NEW DELHI: The Central Bureau of Investigation conducted searches at 30 places in Delhi, Mumbai, Jaipur and Nawanshahr in Punjab over the weekend in connection with alleged fraudulent transfer of money by Customs officials in the accounts of about 20 exporters.

The money, to the tune of Rs. 8 crore, was reportedly transferred in the form of supplementary duty drawback claims, a CBI spokesperson said.

False records

The CBI has registered a criminal case under various sections of the Indian Penal Code and Prevention of Corruption Act against two Customs officials and others for defrauding the Government to the extent of Rs. 8 crore.

It has also been alleged that in 2004-06, supplementary duty drawback claims of some exporters were accepted and payments made by some Customs officials. The claims were processed without any actual physical receipt of such claims by manipulating and creating false records in the database in the computers of the Customs office.

The duty drawback claims were credited to bank accounts of the exporters electronically. Subsequently the money was utilised by the exporters, the CBI said.

The procedure followed by the accused was as follows: no documents for supplementary claims submitted to the Customs, no token number generated, no file opened and subsequently no scrutiny and examination of the documents undertaken by the Customs officials.

The entries in the computer system were manipulated and the sanctioned amount of the supplementary amount of the duty drawback was transferred to bank accounts of the exporters electronically.

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