MUMBAI, Oct 27: A special CBI court refused to discharge a former Deputy Commissioner of Customs for allegedly manipulating the Customs electronic data interface (ECI) system to enable ineligible duty drawback disbursals.
Special Judge Amit V. Kharkar, while rejecting the plea, directed a wider probe into his claim that such malpractice was a routine in the department.
Duty drawback is a refund of duties paid on imported materials that would eventually be exported. If authorities detect irregularities with an exporter, they issue an alert, which then halts drawback disbursals.
These can be lifted only upon written directions from the investigating agency and with the approval of the Customs commissioner. Kunal Anuj, then DC (drawback section) at Jawaharlal Nehru Customs House in Nhava Sheva, is facing prosecution for lifting these alerts and enabling ineligible duty drawback disbursals in exchange for hefty commission during his tenure between March 2017 and April 2018
According to the CBI, Anuj committed fraud amounting to Rs 1 crore by illegally lifting alerts placed on exporters under investigation. The accused allegedly abused his position to allow the release of frozen duty drawback amounts.
In 2019, the CBI registered separate FIRs against Anuj and two other former Customs DCs, Kamleshkumar Singh and Sharad Ranjan for allegedly helping a syndicate run a duty drawback fraud racket that caused about Rs 6.5 crore loss to the government.
|