Mumbai: The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has registered an FIR against Mumbai Airport Customs officials for allegedly fleecing a passenger. A passenger who had arrived from London last month was made to pay ₹25000 digitally in the guise of customs duty. This is the fourth such corruption case registered by the CBI.
The officials against whom an FIR has been registered are customs inspector Prince Bansal and customs Havaldar Santosh Wadkar. The agency has filed a case on charges of criminal conspiracy, a public servant obtaining an undue advantage for performing public duty dishonestly.
A complaint was received on February 22, this year, from one Akash Jaiswal, alleging that he had come to Mumbai from London on February 03, and was intercepted by some Customs officials after scanning his checked-in luggage for carrying new clothes, shoes, bags etc.
Customs officer asks victim if not the full amount how much he can pay
The customs officer informed the victim that he has to pay Customs duty on all the material which will be more than ₹50,000. The Customs officer took his passport and asked him how much can he pay. The victim was asked if he can pay ₹35000, which the former denied.
After some time, one of the Customs officers told the victim that the victim would have to pay ₹25000 online at a number later provided to him and ₹ 5005 at the Customs duty counter. As the victim had a connecting flight to Raipur, he agreed to pay the same under the guise of Customs duty.
After going through the recent news articles, regarding Customs officials taking a bribe online, the victim realised that he had also been duped by the Customs officers and hence filed a complaint with the CBI for taking action against the corrupt Customs officers.
"The complaint was verified and the verification revealed that Prince Bansal, Air Customs Officer, was the Customs Officer who had demanded a bribe from the complainant. Then on the direction of Bansal, Havaldar Wadkar was seen in the CCTV footage, guiding the complainant to pay Customs Duty as well as seen talking to the victim at the time of the transaction of bribe money," said a CBI source.
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