THIRUVANANTHAPURAM, 21 July 2007 — The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has laid charges against 36 officials of the Customs zone at the Calicut Airport, caught red-handed while taking bribe.
Unaccounted money, estimated at tens of thousands of rupees, and foreign goods were seized in raids conducted on the airport and houses of the officials in November 2005. Charges were laid against the accused in the CBI court in Kochi this week.
This was the first time that so many Customs officials, including an assistant commissioner, have been charged with taking bribe in a single case.
CBI officials seized Indian and foreign currencies after they conducted raids on receiving specific information about harassment of passengers by Customs staff at the airport.
An Air-India Express passenger, Abdul Majeed, who arrived from Abu Dhabi, tipped off CBI officials after he was asked to pay bribe for the clearance of his goods. The raids began on Nov. 2, 2005, and lasted for two days.
Several passengers coming from Gulf also complained that there were people at the airport who extort money. The CBI officials also searched the customs area and a duty-free shop run by the India Tourism Development Corp, and found currencies. They seized 150,000 rupees from the handbag of a woman officer.
An amount of 40,000 rupees, meant for distribution among two other officers, was seized from a drawer and 18,000 rupees from a Customs inspector.
In subsequent raids, fixed deposit receipts showing several millions of rupees were found from the residences of Customs officials during the raid.
The police also seized 50 bottles of liquor, believed to have been smuggled out of the duty free shop, after raiding a house near the airport.
The CBI officials waited for a few weeks after having been informed about harassment of passengers while the Central Industrial Security Force, responsible for airport security, monitored the officials’ activities through short-circuit televisions.
