The CBI on Wednesday searched the residence of a former member of the Central Board of Excise & Customs in Punjab and officers of the Customs and Directorate of Revenue Intelligence in alleged bribe of Rs. 20 lakh from a Kolkata-based export-import firm.
The searches came after the agency registered a case against four officers of the Customs Department, a Deputy Director of DRI and one representative of a Kolkata-based private firm in the bribery case for processing import/export-related work of a private firm based in Kolkata, said a CBI spokesperson here.
“It was alleged that some officers of the Customs Department and DRI posted at Kolkata, Mumbai and Delhi and others conspired with private persons in the matter of obtaining permission of the competent authority for allowing a firm to transport consignments from Kolkata Port by railway rake to Nepal through Jogbani (Bihar) in lieu of illegal gratification,” spokesperson Dharini Mishra added.
While the spokesperson did not give any further details, sources in the probe agency said that on November 14, 2012, the accused Customs officers had allegedly demanded a Rs. 20 lakh bribe from the company for facilitating a duty waiver for transportation of imported goods which included fertilizers, billets, etc, from Kolkata Port to Nepal via Jogbani in Bihar. They said that of the promised Rs. 20 lakh, the company had allegedly paid Rs. 15 lakh through Customs Superintendent Nand Kumar Rai, which was distributed to other Customs and DRI officers.
The sources said the searches were conducted at the premises of former CBEC member in Jalandhar, Nand Kishore Rai, and Surinder Kumar Bisht, both posted in Kolkata, Customs Appraiser Baljeet Singh posted at Indira Gandhi Airport, New Delhi, Deputy Director at Directorate of Revenue Intelligence P Vijayakumar in Mumbai, Deputy Commissioner at Directorate-General of Customs and Excise Intelligence P. D. Ramaprasad in Kolkata.
The former CBEC member has not yet been named in the case registered by the agency but investigations are going on about his alleged role in the bribery case. Premises of a Kolkata-based export/import firm, Universal Agency, and its representative Rajesh Sarda and another private person Shib Nath Mal were also searched in connection with the case, the CBI claimed.
