Massage chair, shoes, washing machine as bribe: CBI arrests customs officers

By Divyesh Singh: The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Tuesday, June 6, arrested two Deputy Commissioners of Customs - Dinesh Fuldiya and Subhash Chandra - in a grafts case. They allegedly took bribes through their collection agents while being posted at Nhava Sheva Import Section of Customs. While Fuldiya booked flight tickets and hotel rooms through his agents, Chandra made his agent deliver Rs 3 lakh to one of his relatives.

Sudhir Pednekar and Ashish Kamdar, the collection agents, were facilitating illegal imports without paying customs duty under the scheme of Transfer of Residence.

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Under this scheme, it was shown that the goods were household items that cost under Rs 5 lakh, and the person bringing them to India is going to become a permanent resident in the country.

The scheme was being misused by the customs clearing agents who skipped paying the customs duty, with the help of collection agents and their accomplices. They did so by bribing the Customs officers, so they didn't have to pay for various imported goods, causing a loss of crores to the exchequer.

One of the accused officers purchased a massage chair worth Rs 3.5 lakh, shoes worth Rs 23,000 and a washing machine worth Rs 61,000. The bills for these items were generated in his name, but the payments were made by his collection agent.

The other accused, posted as Deputy Commissioner of Customs at Nhava Sheva, allegedly sent Rs 50 lakh to his native place through hawala channels.

The CBI searched the premises of both Chandra and Fuldiya on Monday, June 5.

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