Op Numkhor: Customs seizes eight more vehicles

Kochi: Commissioner of Customs (preventive) seized eight more cars as part of Op Numkhor that was launched to probe the smuggling of vehicles from Bhutan and Nepal. Customs unit said its team seized an SUV (Nissan Patrol) that was used in the movie ‘Lucky Bhaskar' from one Eldo Paul on the reasonable belief that the vehicle was imported into India illegally. The other seven vehicles were seized from various parts of the state on Thursday.Customs said that after an investigation it found that Bongaigaon Police in Assam had registered a case against the district transport officer (DTO) of Bongaigaon and joint DTO and arrested them along with seven other persons for registering 464 vehicles using fake/forged documents at Bongaigaon RTO. It showed on record that a majority of the vehicles had first been registered at Lakshadweep. Officers from Cochin Customs unit arrested Bongaigaon DTO Deepak Potawary and four other persons for their active involvement in fake registration of smuggled vehicles. During the course of investigation, it emerged that Biswajit Das, the kingpin of this smuggling operation, had sourced many smuggled SUVs from Bhutan and sold these vehicles to Roadway Cars in Kozhikode through a person from New Delhi. Customs said that investigation revealed that Zain Marva, partner of M/s Roadway Cars was directly linked to gangs and had distributed smuggled SUVs in Kerala. A team arrested Marva on Thursday under the provisions of Customs Act 1962, for his active involvement in the smuggling of SUVs from Bhutan to Kerala valued at over Rs 1.5 crore.