Having failed to evoke any response more than a fortnight after it wrote to the Lakshadweep Administration seeking clarifications about the visit of a foreign-owned yacht at many of its islands, the Customs on Friday solicited the help of the administration's senior standing counsel at the High Court on the matter.
It has emerged that the yacht named S.Y. Sea Dreams, registered in Basel in Switzerland, had called on at Bangaram, Kalpeni, Agatti, Kadamat, Amini, and Kavaratti Islands of Lakshadweep. The visits were not notified to Customs Ports under the Customs Act. The yacht, hence, was found in violation of Section 29 of the Customs Act and is liable for confiscation under Section 111 (a) of the said Act.
“We had a meeting with the senior standing counsel for Lakshadweep Administration seeking his help to expedite the process of getting details since no senior officials of the administration was present in Kochi. We hope that since legal questions are also involved he would be able to impress up on the administration officials to send a representative to appear before the investigation officer,” Sumit Kumar, Customs Commissioner, told The Hindu .
The Customs is also verifying why the Kochi Customs House failed to notify the Customs Preventive Commissionerate when the yacht had informed it about exiting the Kochi port before heading out to Lakshadweep.
The yacht had reached the Cochin Port on February 28, 2018, and remain anchored in the Marina before departing to Lakshadweep on November 13. It returned to Marina on December 1, 2018, and had been berthed there since then.
Meanwhile, the yacht owner Thomas Reichert from Switzerland met Mr. Kumar on Friday seeking to expedite the process.
