KOCHI: The CBI on Monday filed chargesheet under Prevention of Corruption Act against 13 customs officials of Kozhikode airport.
The officials were identified as customs superintendents Jose K M, E Ganapathy Potty, Yaser Arafath K, Naresh, and Asha S, customs inspectors Satyamendra Singh, Sudhir Kumar, Minimol V C, Sanjeev Kumar, and Yogesh, head havildars Ashokan C, and Francis P M, and Mani K, sub staffer, Karipur airport.
The CBI has also included 17 gold smugglers as accused in the case.
The Customs officials are accused of colluding with the gold smugglers. It was a joint surprise check conducted by a team of CBI officials along with the officials of Directorate of Revenue Intelligence at the Kozhikode airport on January 1, 2021, that revealed the alleged nexus between smugglers and customs officials.
The probe found that the accused officials were fraudulently facilitating the import of prohibited/ contraband items for trade by releasing the same without assessing/valuing or under-valuing the goods by obtaining undue advantage from smugglers.
During joint surprise check, some of the smugglers were intercepted after customs officials had cleared their baggage.
Their baggage was examined/assessed and valuated and the total value of contraband items recovered from smugglers was assessed to be Rs 70,08,344.
During investigation, it was revealed that the customs officials in collusion with smugglers were releasing the baggage containing contraband and dutiable items of smugglers without imposing customs duty by receiving hefty sums as bribe from them.
The visuals showing officials accepting bribe were collected from the CCTVs installed in the customs area at the airport.