CHENNAI: Exposing more tentacles of the gold smuggling racket at Chennai airport, government has suspended an undisclosed number of immigration officials for their suspected links with the smugglers.
A top Intelligence Bureau official said three of the officials had been placed under suspension. But airport sources told TOI that many more officers have faced action.“The number is being under-reported to avoid scrutiny of the immigration section by other agencies such as Directorate of Revenue intelligence (DRI) and Customs,” an official said.
The charge against the suspended personnel is that, for a cut from the smugglers, they collected gold from carriers arriving at the airport and sneaked it outside to receivers. They are also accused of allowing flyers through without scrutinising passports and other documents properly.
An IB officer, who did not wish to be identified, said the nexus of the three officers with gold smugglers was being probed. One of them is Saravanan, who was on deputation to the IB. The officer refused to name the other two. “Action is being taken for the charges against them as mentioned in the memo,” he said.
The officer said the suspension procedure was initiated only for internal procedural lapses. “We got intelligence that they allow flyers without verification of documents under the Emigration Check Not Required (ECNR) category. How long they have been doing this and the money trail are being probed. If their involvement in gold smuggling had been proved, they would have been booked by now,” he said.
The officer said the suspension orders were issued before Customs busted a cartel that smuggled in 267kg gold, worth about Rs 167 crore, in about two months. They used a souvenir shop as a front at the international terminal.
Officials said they have detected similar offences in the past and suspended erring personnel. At least 45 immigration personnel, including many state police personnel on deputation to IB, are deployed at the airport for clearing international passengers.