CBI books three Mizoram Customs officials in Rs 35 lakh bribery case
Aizawl: The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has filed a First Information Report (FIR) against three Customs officials previously stationed in Mizoram for allegedly taking bribes amounting to more than Rs. 35 lakh from smugglers, the agency said in a statement.
The accused, including a retired Superintendent and two Inspectors, allegedly released smuggled goods after receiving illegal gratification, it said.
The case, officially registered on February 3, follows a formal complaint from the Additional Commissioner of CGST, Guwahati.
The officials are accused of abusing their positions while serving in the Customs Preventive Force (CPF) in east Mizoram's Champhai town, a critical transit point on the India-Myanmar border, during 2022–2023.
The officials allegedly intercepted consignments of areca nuts (betel nuts) and foreign cigarettes without filing any legal documentation, the statement said.
They allegedly demanded and accepted bribes exceeding Rs. 35 lakh across multiple instances to release the confiscated smuggled goods, it added.
A subsequent inspection of godowns revealed that seized goods worth over Rs. 1.42 crore, confiscated between December 2022 and April 2023, were found missing from the available stock, it said.
In a coordinated effort to trace the money and recover incriminating evidence, the CBI launched simultaneous searches across five states, raiding the residences and premises of the accused in Guwahati (Assam), Itanagar (Arunachal Pradesh), Sikar (Rajasthan), Patna (Bihar), and Churachandpur (Manipur).
A CBI official said the investigation is ongoing, and more officials or private intermediaries could be named as the probe progresses.
The crackdown comes amid an intensified fight against the trafficking of drugs and Burmese areca nuts by the Mizoram government and civil society groups.
In late 2024, the Gauhati High Court had ordered a CBI probe into the rampant smuggling of dried areca nuts, which local farmers claim has devastated the indigenous economy by flooding the market with duty-free, low-quality imports.