The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has registered an FIR against three customs officials, who were previously posted in Mizoram, for allegedly accepting bribes exceeding Rs 35 lakh from smugglers, the agency said in a statement.
The three officers included a retired superintendent and two inspectors. As per allegations, the officials have released smuggled consignments after receiving illegal gratification.
Reportedly, the official registration of the case was done on February 3 following a complaint lodged by the Additional Commissioner of CGST, Guwahati.
The officials are reportedly accused of abusing their official positions while serving at the Customs Preventive Force in east Mizoram’s Champhai town, a critical transit point on the India-Myanmar border, during 2022-2023.
The CBI also stated that the officials intercepted consignments of areca nuts (betel nuts) and foreign cigarettes but failed to follow legal procedures, including the filing of proper seizure documentation.
Further, it has also been alleged that the accused demanded and accepted bribes exceeding Rs 35 lakh on multiple occasions in exchange for releasing the confiscated smuggled goods.
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A subsequent inspection of godowns revealed that seized goods worth over Rs 1.42 crore, confiscated between December 2022 and April 2023, were missing from official stock records, the statement added.
As part of the probe to track the flow of illegal funds and gather evidence, the CBI conducted coordinated searches at the official and residential premises of the accused in five states, including Assam’s Guwahati, Itanagar in Arunachal Pradesh, Sikar in Rajasthan, Patna in Bihar, and Churachandpur in Manipur.
The crackdown comes amid intensified fight against trafficking of drugs and Burmese areca nuts by the Mizoram government and civil society groups.
