Customs preventive department officials raided several places across Kerala to locate, identify and seize expensive vehicles from Bhutan illegally from Bhutan with fake documents of the army and American embassy. Commissioner of Customs Prevention Commissioner T. Tiju at Kochi told a press conference here that on Tuesday, the state was searched at about 30 places including the houses of film artists Prithviraj Sukumaran, Dulkar Salman and Amit Chakkalakkal and 36 expensive cars were seized. The code name of this campaign is ‘Operation Numkhor’.
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In Bhutani, ‘Numkhor’ means ‘vehicle’. Giving details of the campaign, he said that many of these vehicles sold illegally in the country were used for smuggling gold and drugs and cases have been registered in this regard. He said, “If they can smuggle cars, gold and narcotics in this way, they can bring anything. Therefore, this is a major threat to the national and economic security of the country. ”The Customs Prevention of Customs also said that their preliminary investigation has also revealed the Income Tax and GST (Goods and Services Tax) theft as well as many other illegal activities like money refinement.
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He also said that apart from this, he is also investigating whether the money received from such illegal activities was used for terrorist activities. The commissioner said that under the campaign, raids were conducted simultaneously at Kochi, Thiruvananthapuram, Kozhikode, Malappuram and other places. Giving details of the functioning of the gang behind the illegal imports of expensive vehicles in India via Bhutan, the official said that “these cars were brought to India either in a completely damaged condition, inside containers or under the guise of tourist vehicles.”
Tiju said, “After bringing vehicles to India, they are carefully registered in different parts of the country using forged documents. Significantly, for the registration of these vehicles, the names, seals and their symbols of foreign embassies, including the Indian Army and American Embassy, are used in a fake way. ”He said that these vehicles were brought to India with fake documents, which did not reveal who the real owner was.
The official said that raids were conducted at about 30 places with the help of Kerala Transport Commissionerate, ATS and State Police. He said that these raids were conducted on the basis of intelligence of smuggling in India through the Indo-Bhutan border. He said that initial investigation by the agency has revealed that most of the vehicles are with rich people like Prithviraj and Dulkar, who had “deliberately or unknowingly” bought such vehicles.
“No vehicle of Prithviraj was seized, but two vehicles of Dulkar Salman have been identified.” He said that the statements of such persons will be recorded and documents of their vehicles will be investigated to find out if they knew these illegal activities. Tiju said, “Summons will be issued to appear before us to record the statement.”
He said that if it is revealed that the vehicles were illegally brought to India, whether their current owners are aware of it or not, they will be confiscated. He comes to know that if the existing owners of the vehicle were reported to be illegal, action will also be taken against them. He said that there were only about 150 to 200 such vehicles in Kerala, out of which 36 were confiscated during the day’s action and raids will continue till the remaining vehicles were confiscated.
He said that these vehicles are not registered in Kerala and are running in the name of unknown persons in the state, which are difficult to find out. He said, “Therefore, such vehicles are a threat to us.” The official said that such vehicles are also in other states and therefore, there is a possibility of campaigning across the country.