CBI probe ordered into cigarette smuggling case

Saurabh Malik

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, October 14

The Punjab and Haryana High Court has ordered a CBI probe into an alleged cigarette smuggling case after taking note of the “tardy, casual and irresponsible attitude” of the Customs Department and the CGST Department.

The direction by Justice Arvind Singh Sangwan came on a second petition by Sunil Dutt against the Department of Customs, Customs Commissionerate, Ludhiana, and another respondent for anticipatory bail in a complaint case for offences under the Customs Act.

The petitioner in his initial petition had stated that action was initiated against erring customs officers on his complaint after he came to know that 39,60,000 cigarettes of four different brands were imported, instead of aluminum scrap, without paying customs duty.

In his second plea, one of the new grounds taken was that the petitioner was a registered “informer” of the General Goods and Service Tax and had helped in unearthing “many scams” and GST evasion, for which he had been granted award. His counsel added the petitioner initially gave information to the GST Department regarding illegal clearing of consignment by the Customs Department without making an entry. It was intercepted by preventive wing of the CGST Commissionerate, Ludhiana. The container’s shipping line seal was found to be intact suggesting that the customs authorities never checked the consignment. He added the petitioner was apprehensive since he had unearthed the scam. The customs was represented by senior advocates Sanjay Bansal, CBI by senior advocate Sumeet Goel and CGST by Sourabh Goel.

Justice Sangwan noticed that Amanjit Singh, Joint Commissioner, Central GST Commissionerate, Ludhiana, sent a secret note in a sealed cover stating Sunil Dutt was a secret informer/source. The court found it “very strange and surprising” that the Department of Customs, Customs Commissionerate, Ludhiana, and Anti-Evasion Unit, Central Goods and Services Tax, Commissionerate, Ludhiana, were fighting tooth and nail regarding fixing liability on how the consignment was cleared manually without an entry by the Customs Department.

As per the Customs Department stand, there was a collusion of the CGST department officials with the petitioner and other accused. In the process, the CGST Department was posing him as a secret informer/source and even filed the secret note giving him a clean chit.

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