Rampant irregularities at Mumbai Airport Customs to claim rewards for Foreign Currency (FC) seizure cases of the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) at the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport and discrepancies in the customs arrest and seizure reports weaken cases in court as a result of which accused persons secure bail.

Flawed Legal Cases

A total of 18 such FC cases detected and intercepted by the CISF in last seven months were handed over to Airport Customs for further action and the Customs Air Intelligence Unit (AIU) is claiming rewards for seizure effected by CISF. The rising cases of accused in Foreign Currency smuggling cases getting bail due to discrepancies in the arrest and seizure reports has raised eye brows on the working of Mumbai Airport Customs abetting the racket to enable the smugglers get bail. “It is a national security issues. Apart from the economic harm caused to the nation by the unchecked export of precious forex,” alleged another senior security official in the Ministry of Home Affairs.

A suspect Shaikh Munnawar was intercepted by the CISF on Tuesday morning for abnormal behaviour and frisking lead to seizure of USD 75000 which was duly handed over to Customs. The CISF hand over report clearly states the FC seizure was at security hold on profiling and accused with FC handed to Customs. The customs report claims of following the suspect and making the FC seizure on the basis of Airport Passenger Information System analytical tools.

CISF Involvement and Customs’ Role

“The contradictions in the CISF and Customs reports will enable the accused to easily secure bail,” fumed a senior intelligence officer posted at the Mumbai airport.

Earlier in March an Indian Origin US national Ami Kotecha was intercepted by CISF with Rs 8.3 crores worth of FC in her hand baggage and handed over to Customs. Strangely the customs AIU claimed reward for the seizure and allegedly manipulated the arrest and seizure report changing the gender and name of the accused to Poonam Sombaya and produced in court. The accused took advantage of the lapses and contradictory statements of CISF and Customs leading to court granting bail.

CISF memo mentioned a woman flyer Ami Kotecha was intercepted in the security hold with foreign currency in her hand bag while customs reported a male passeneger her husband Poonam Sombaya held in Customs Departure. Customs officials also failed to freeze over 5lakhs of foreign currencies in the bank accounts of Ami Kotecha and issued Look Out Circular much later after her flight had departed.

The then Mumbai Airport Chief Commissioner Roopam Kapoor had vehemently denied involvement of Customs AIU in providing escort and protocol to foreign currency smuggling suspects and issued a strong clarification in March 2023 regarding the seizure of over million USD worth Rs 8.3 crore intercepted by CISF integrated security hold at terminal 2 of the Mumbai airport.

Demand for Overhaul

According to Intelligence officials, the customs officials in connivance with FC smuggling rackets are deliberately hampering the investigation of contraband cases. “Whenever any flyer is caught by CISF and duly handed over to Customs due to jurisdiction, few corrupt customs make contradictory seizure reports with false and fabricated Panchnama to show that seizure was on basis of customs own intelligence which later hampers investigation leading to bail of accused and FC is released in adjudication,” alleged the intelligence official.

Exasperated senior customs officials confirmed the irregularities in the Airport Customs working and complete overhaul to plug the loopholes. “It is a shame that few black sheep in our department are bringing a bad name to the Customs. An investigation is in progress and action will be taken,” assured the senior customs official. He further added that the names of CISF personnel are being included in the reward claims for seizure of contraband gold and foreign currencies.

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