THOOTHUKUDI: The Thoothukudi SIPCOT police arrested eight persons, including a TVK advocate wing leader, for allegedly smuggling Chinese crackers worth Rs 1 crore from a container that was sealed and seized by the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) last year.
Sources said DRI sleuths had seized at the VOC Port last October a container allegedly containing Chinese fire crackers worth Rs 2 crore imported from a Southeast nation. The container was stored at a private container freight station (CFS), and the firecrackers were to be destroyed after an inspection by the jurisdictional magistrate.
Legal proceedings are pending against the importer, said sources.
However, during the inspection in May, the magistrate found half of the fire crackers missing and therefore did not allow the remaining parcels to be destroyed. The CFS authorities lodged a complaint with the SIPCOT police.
Police investigation revealed the role of the employees of the CFS who had resigned. Further probe revealed that the employees had smuggled the firecrackers valued over Rs 1 crore and restuffed the cartons with waste papers to hoodwink the Magistrate during inspection.
On Sunday, police arrested the five employees — Jeyakrishnan (30), Immanuel (24), Anujith Yanson (30), Anthony Rajesh Kumar (42) and Sakthi Vijay (26) of Thoothukudi.
During the interrogation, they allegedly revealed the role of Jesudas, the Thoothukudi central district advocate wing organiser of the TVK, and two others in smuggling the firecrackers, said police. Based on the statement, police arrested Jesudas and the others on Monday.