TN firm under CBI scanner for Rs 3 crore liquor duty evasion

A firm based in Tamil Nadu is under the scanner of the CBI for allegedly diverting imported liquor consignment originally meant for Thiruvananthapuram International Airport for four months in 2017, and selling the imported, duty-free liquor to unauthorised persons. This fraud, allegedly done with the help of two Customs officials, resulted in a loss of more than Rs 3 crore for the Customs Department, sources said.

The firm involved in the liquor scam was identified as Plus Max Duty Free Pvt Ltd, which has its office in Tiruchengode, Namakkal.

The accused Customs officials are Luke K George, now posted as superintendent of Customs, Audit Commissionerate, Cochin and Venugopalan Nair, Superintendent of Customs, Thiruvananthapuram International Airport. Other accused in the case are the Managing Director of the firm, Prakadeesh Kumar, Director B Suryaprakasam, CEO R Sundaravasan, location manager P Madan, and a salesman Kiran David.

According to the CBI, the firm’s CEO and location manager of the duty-free shop, with an intention to cheat the Customs department, created forged and fabricated documents, including sales invoices, to cover up and legitimise the illegal sale of imported foreign liquor.

The modus operandi adopted by the firm included diversion of liquor consignment meant for Thiruvananthapuram international airport and illegal sale of duty- free liquor bottles to unauthorised persons. They produced fake sales vouchers to claim that the liquor was sold to genuine passengers who came to the international airport. The agency added that this was done in connivance with the two Customs officials.

In this process, the accused obtained the passport details of international passengers from the airlines through fraudulent means and misused the same. But the passengers had no knowledge about the whole network. This was facilitated by Luke George, who was then posted as Customs superintendent at the air cargo complex at Shankumugam, Thiruvananthapuram.

The CBI charged him of abusing his official position, and without any authority, issued letters all the airlines operating from the Thiruvananthapuram international airport to provide the passenger manifest for the period of 1 September 2017 to 18 December 2017. He thus obtained passenger details, including passport numbers, and shared the same with the officials of Plus Max Duty Free Pvt Ltd, enabling them to effect illegal sale of duty-free liquor bottles. In this process, passport numbers of many international passengers were misused without their knowledge.

Venugopalan Nair, Customs superintendent at the airport, conspired with the executives of the duty- free shop executives, created false records to show that the diverted liquor consignment had reached the Customs warehouse at the airport, while actually it has not reached there, said CBI FIR, registered at ACB, Cochin.