AIZAWL, Feb 6: The CBI has filed an FIR against three customs officials previously stationed in Mizoram for allegedly taking bribes amounting to more than Rs 35 lakh from smugglers, the agency said in a statement.
The accused, including a retired superintendent and two inspectors, allegedly released smuggled goods after receiving illegal gratification, it said.
The case, officially registered on February 3, follows a formal complaint from the additional commissioner of CGST, Guwahati.
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The officials are accused of abusing their official positions while serving at the Customs Preventive Force (CPF) in east Mizoram’s Champhai town, a critical transit point on the India-Myanmar border, during 2022-2023.
The officials allegedly intercepted consignments of areca nuts (betel nuts) and foreign cigarettes without filing any legal documentation, the statement said.
They allegedly demanded and accepted brides exceeding Rs 35 lakh across multiple instances to release the confiscated smuggled goods, it said.
A subsequent inspection at godowns revealed that seized goods worth over Rs 1.42 crore, confiscated between December 2022 and April 2023, were found to be missing from the available stock, it added.
In a coordinated effort to unearth the money trail and recover incriminating evidence, the CBI launched simultaneous searches across five states and raided residential and premises of the accused in Guwahati (Assam), Itanagar (Arunachal Pradesh), Sikar (Rajasthan), Patna (Bihar) and Churachandpur (Manipur).
A CBI official said investigation is ongoing and more officials or private intermediaries could be named as the probe progresses.
The crackdown came amid intensified fight against trafficking of drugs and Burmese areca nuts by the Mizoram government and civil society groups.
In late 2024, the Gauhati High Court had ordered a CBI probe into the rampant smuggling of dried areca nuts, which local farmers claim has devastated the indigenous economy by flooding the market with duty-free, low-quality imports. (PTI)
