Acting on specific intelligence, DRI Zonal Unit, Ludhiana reported to have arrested an accused who is a mastermind in a case of customs duty evasion of Rs 189 Crore. He was produced before Hon’ble Judicial Magistrate 1st Class, Ludhiana who has granted DRI custody of the accused for further interrogation.

The accused had been absconding since for more than one year. The accused through dummy proprietors of three firms was engaged in diversion of duty-free imported goods from the customs bonded warehouses. As per the bonded warehouse license conditions, the imported goods should have been used as raw material in 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% of the value of the imported goods.

Total customs duty evaded is to the tune of Rs 189 Cr. 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.

Further investigation in the case is going on.