Did customs officer Negi allow smuggled goods to pass through?

By: Vinod Kumar Menon

Mumbai:

inquiry: Mir Ranjan Negi and three others have been temporarily transferred to the chief commissioner’s (airport) office

Mir Ranjan Negi was an observant hockey player in his time. But he wasn’t so vigilant on January 17 when a smuggled consignment containing electronic gadgets, cigarettes and computer RAMs was not intercepted by him and other customs officials.

The Vigilance Wing of the Central Board of Excise and Customs has initiated an inquiry against Negi, a customs superintendent, Assistant Commissioner (customs) G B Agashi, S Kudalkar (PRO) and Abhay Choduhary (Air Intelligence Unit) and they have been temporarily transferred.

Senior customs officials confirmed the move and told MiD DAY that prima-facie the action against Negi and the others is for dereliction of duty.

Smuggled goods

That day, 35 people carrying the smuggled goods arrived from Dubai on Jet Airways (9W-543) and Cathay Pacific (CX-684) flights. Ideally, they should have been intercepted by the baggage section, of which Negi is in charge. But they were intercepted by the vigilance team while the bags were being screened in terminal 2A.

The raiding team decided to zero in on those carriers who were carrying goods over Rs 5 lakh, which attracts prosecution, while some who were carrying goods worth less than Rs 5 lakh paid the customs duty of 150 per cent and got the consignment cleared.

Spying gadgets

However, the matter turned grave when the raiding team discovered 25 abandoned bags without the luggage tags. And to their horror around seven bags contained electronic spying gadgets (see box). The vigilance team is now checking the disembarkation cards, which may lead them to the owner of the bags. The smuggled goods were worth around Rs 2 crore.

A senior officer probing the case said, “Such large scale smuggling is not possible without the connivance of custom officials at the airport.” The officer said that most of the carriers were from Mumbai. Two of them have now been arrested.

Negi told MiD DAY that he did not want to comment. “The matter is being investigated by the vigilance department,” he said. And Agashi added, “It is a routine administrative action.”

Spy gadgets

The seized electronic spy gadgets include fountain pens with inbuilt video camera, Cloning accessories used for mobiles, gadgets used for recording.