Man arrested in Rs 189 crore customs duty evasion case in Ludhiana

Acting on specific intelligence, the zonal unit of the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) at Ludhiana has arrested an accused, who is a mastermind in a case of customs duty evasion of Rs 189 crore.

The accused had been absconding for more than a year. The accused was engaged in diversion of duty-free imported goods from the customs bonded warehouses through dummy proprietors of three firms, an official statement said here on Monday.

It said that according to the bonded warehouse licence conditions, the imported goods should have been used as raw material in the manufacturing of the export goods.

The entire fraudulent activity was carried out to evade import duties on imported goods by diverting the goods to the domestic market without payment of duty, which would otherwise be 100 per cent of the value of the imported goods.

“Total customs duty evaded is to the tune of Rs 189 crore. To fulfil export obligation, the accused, using firms owned by the dummy proprietors, attempted to export counterfeit and spurious goods manufactured from some extraneous materials other than the duty-free imported goods,” it said.

The accused was produced before a court here on Sunday which granted the DRI his custody for further interrogation.

Investigation in the case is going on, it said.