Customs, police, prohibition, smuggling and Gujarat
Gandhi's Gujarat is the only State in India where official prohibition prevails, but the prohibition there, is a big joke and anyone who wants to drink, will find the finest drinks available at tipsy rates. Of course once in a way, there has to be the mandatory raid and arrest, but things are anything but sober when they arrest Customs officers under the prohibition laws. That is exactly what happened when the local Police raided the Mundra Port and arrested three customs officers alleging that they were selling foreign liquor.
While the Kutch Superintendent of Police says that the customs employees arrested, have violated the Prohibition rules in the state by allegedly selling off liquor outside the customs area in Mundra, Customs officers say that the Mundra police have violated Customs Act by conducting raids inside the customs area in Mundra port and later taking the liquor consignment outside the port, without paying the required customs duty.
Mundra police raided a godown in customs area inside Mundra port on Sunday evening and arrested three customs officers with 205 bottles of foreign-made liquor, 640 foreign-made beer cans and cash of Rs 2.36 lakh. “The raid and subsequent arrest followed a specific tip-off that the accused used to sell off foreign-made liquor outside the port premises. They are accused of violating Prohibition rules of the state,” according to the Police.
Customs officials, however, have a different version; that the customs area of a port is a demarcated zone under the exclusive jurisdiction of the Customs department and that the local police cannot even enter that area.
Under the Customs Act, any act or omission which renders the goods liable to confiscation is smuggling. Now who is the smuggler? Customs-man or police?