Four customs officials suspended after tomato bungling in UP

According to reports, the consignment, worth roughly Rs 4. 8 lakhs, was handed over to the customs officials for its destruction after being seized on July 7.

Lucknow: Four officials of the customs department have been suspended days after three tonnes of tomatoes that were being smuggled into India from Nepal were seized by the Maharajganj police and Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB) in a joint operation and illegally released later.

According to reports, the consignment, worth roughly Rs 4. 8 lakhs, was handed over to the customs officials for its destruction after being seized on July 7.

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According to rules, the perishable items that are seized should be destroyed within 24 hours. However, it is alleged that the tomatoes were released by the customs officials only to be intercepted and nabbed by police once again.

Later, customs officials at the Lucknow headquarters were informed about this.

Customs commissioner, Lucknow, Aarti Saxena, said that as per their preliminary probe, four department officials posted in the border area have been suspended after they were found prima -facie guilty of lapses which led to the release of the tomatoes.

Those suspended include superintendent Vishal Mehta, inspectors S.S. Haider, Aditya Sharma, and Jitendra Kumar. Meanwhile, senior officials said that the probe is still pending, and a final action will be taken against all those found guilty.

On July 7, two jeeps with 1. 5 tonnes of tomatoes each were intercepted by an SSB team near Nichlaul area of Maharajganj district. Later, SSB informed the local police, following which a police team reached the spot. After inspection, the customs department was informed of it. The customs department took away the consignment along with the vehicles.

Again, on July 8, two jeeps carrying 1.5 tonnes of tomatoes each, were intercepted at Samptiha police outpost in Nautanwa area of the district. Police said that they had registered it in their general diary and informed senior police officials about it.

Later, the cops discovered that the two jeeps had the same registration number plates as those intercepted in Nichlaul a day earlier and the quantity of seized tomatoes was the same too.

Senior police officials had later informed customs department staff in the area, who claimed that these two jeeps were different.

They also claimed that they had destroyed the tomatoes seized earlier as per SOP. But the CCTV footage of toll plazas and road crossings presented a different picture.