Rajasthan: Liquor smuggled in name of Ayurvedic medicine, busted
Rajasthan’s Sikar Udyog Nagar police officials on Thursday have nabbed a truck driver and his comrade involved in liquor smuggling. The truck driver has been identified as Sukhwinder Singh and his associate has been identified as Baljinder.
As per the reports, the Ayurvedic medicine, that was being sent from Sikar to Assam via a truck, was allegedly stolen by the truck driver and his associate. Both started smuggling liquor from Haryana to Gujarat and other places by filling liquor under Shankhpushpi, a traditional herbal Ayurvedic medicine.
Police head, Pawan Chaubey said that Ved Prakash Agarwal, a resident of Anand Nagar area of the city has a firm called ‘Avinash Sales’. His firm works to supply the raw material of Ayurvedic medicine. His firm had sent a consignment of Shankhapushpi worth Rs 4 lakh on June 14 via Agarwal Transport Company at Sirsa in Haryana to Balipara, Gaurimari, Sonipura(Assam) for Dabur India Company.
Sixty thousand rupees were already paid for its transportation from Sikar. On June 23, when the medicine did not reach Assam, Prakash approached the transport office, Chaubey added.
https://newsd.in/rajasthan-liquor-smuggled-in-name-of-ayurvedic-medicine-busted/
Lear MoreBSF seizes silver ornaments at India-Bangladesh border
The Border Security Force (BSF) seized silver ornaments from a bike while it was being smuggled to Bangladesh in West Bengal’s Kaijuri, BSF South Bengal said. According to the force, the incident occurred on August 6 when ornaments worth Rs 9,60,720 were seized while they were being smuggled on a bike.
A smuggler on a motorbike was approaching the border on Thursday night when BSF troops chased the bikes and stopped it. The smuggler then left the bike and fled. The troops opened the toolbox and found 13 kg of silver jewelery. The bike was also confiscated while the border guards are trying to find out the identity of the motorbike with the number plate.
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Nine custom-order smugglers nabbed
Customs and marine police officers have cracked a smuggling case in north Lantau, seizing HK$18 million worth of luxury products, including dried seafood, wine, designer clothes, cosmetic products and cigars.
Danny Cheung Kwok-yin, divisional commander of the customs and excise department’s marine investigation, said travel curbs for mainlanders gave smugglers extra incentive to step up their runs at this time.
“It is believed some individuals took the orders of mainland customers online and then smuggled in the goods,” he said.
Nine local men were arrested in the operation involving officers from customs’ marine enforcement and the marine police’s regional task force, small boat division and west division on Monday.
Ip Hau-foon, senior inspector of the marine police’s regional task force, said the arrests were made when the nine were unloading goods from a lorry onto a speedboat near the airport.
Officers first spotted the speedboat in the waters off the southeast of the airport at 9pm on Monday, which later sped toward the rocky shore near the Sham Shui Kok Chlorine Unloading Area.
https://www.thestandard.com.hk/section-news/section/4/221623/Nine-custom-order-smugglers-nabbed
Lear MoreChennai: Passengers smuggle gold via relief flights; 2.21Kg gold seized
In three instances of Gold smuggling at the Chennai International Airport since the nationwide lockdown was imposed in March, Air Customs officials have seized a total of 2.21 Kg gold under Customs Act 1962. The yellow metal was smuggled in by passengers who had entered via relief flights operated from the West-Asian nations.
On Tuesday night, Kasimani Kolanji, (22) and Murugan Chandran,(38) of Thanjavur, Tamil Nadu arrived from Dubai by Air India Express Airlines Flight No. IX-1644. They were intercepted by Air Intelligence Unit officers at exit on suspicion of carrying gold. On their personal search, four polythene pouches(two each) containing gold paste were found concealed inside the waistline/belt portion of their jeans. On extraction by heat treatment, 731 grams of gold of 24K purity valued at Rs. 34.5 lakhs was recovered and seized.
On Tuesday morning, Khaleel Ahamed, 24, who arrived from Dubai by Air India express flight IX-1644 was intercepted at exit. On frisking, a packet of gold paste was found to be concealed in his innerwear. On extraction 280 grams of gold valued at Rs.15.60 lakhs was recovered and seized.
Lear MoreKolkata Police seizes 1,400 litres of fake hand sanitizer, 2 arrested
Kolkata Police has seized 1,400 litres of fake hand sanitizer from a godown in the city. The Enforcement Branch (EB), along with the Anti-Rowdy Squad (ARS) of the Kolkata Police, raided two locations in central Kolkata on Thursday and recovered the spurious sanitizers.
Acting on a tip-off about the manufacture and sale of spurious sanitiser in Ezra Street locality under Hare Street police station limits, sleuths of the city police conducted a raid in the area and seized 1,400 litres of such sanitiser from two shops. Several plastic containers with fake sanitizer stored in them were recovered.
The EB has been on the lookout for fake sanitizers in the market, given the huge demand due to the coronavirus outbreak. Police have arrested two persons, Rajib Punjabi (43) and Jiauddin Basha (43) who allegedly ran the factory without valid documents.
“There was no label or manufacturing certificate on the product. Also, they could not produce valid documents of the products thus prepared to mix different chemicals injurious to human life,” said a top police officer.
Lear MoreEluru: 15 arrested, 2,622 liquor bottles seized
Eluru: West Godavari police arrested 15 persons and seized 2622 liquor bottles, which were smuggled from Sattupalli of Khammam district into West Godavari district. According to information Tadikalapudi SI Venkanna and other police on a tip off raided Jilakaragudem village and noticed 1603 liquor bottles hid in the gardens.
The police seized auto rikshaw, Ashok Leyland truck, car, two-wheeler and 2622 liquor bottles. The police got information that the main accused Vangara Saidattu in association with others had been smuggling liquor from Telangana into West Godavari district. The main accused hails from Chinnampeta area of Sattupalli.
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Customs busts illegal Agarbatti import racket
In a major drive against the smuggling of Agarrbattis from Vietnam, Customs officers on Wednesday arrested Bharat H. Shah and his son, Shri Ronik Shah at Chennai after seizing 161.94 MT of Agarbattis and 68.36 MT of Agarbatti Powder which was found concealed in containers imported by M/s. Indian Agarbatti Manufacturers, Bangalore.
This is one of the biggest seizures of restricted items in recent times at the port.
The importer had declared to the customs that these containers contained Joss powder and Premix powder for making incense sticks. Joss powder is normally chargeable to 15 percent customs duty but the duty is ‘Nil’ under the Free Trade Agreement (FTA) with ASEAN which includes Vietnam.
The importer was thus trying to take advantage of the FTA as well as use the items covered thereunder to conceal and smuggle restricted Agarbattis; Agarbattis are placed in the restricted category since August last year and cannot be imported without a license.
Acting on solid input that some unscrupulous importers were clandestinely smuggling Agarbattis from Vietnam after the item was restricted for import, the Customs used data analytics to identify the suspect importer, M/s. Indian Agarbatti Manufacturers. Thereafter, a tight watch was kept on its six imported containers that had landed at the Chennai port.
Lear MoreIndore: Four traders of Ranipura Market arrested for selling fake cosmetic products
Indore: Four traders of Ranipura Market were nabbed selling fake cosmetic products with label of a renowned company, on Wednesday. When nabbed, the accused were cheating customers by selling them the fake products.
According to DIG Harinarayanachari Mishra, a team of Central Kotwali police station arrested four shopkeepers and seized fake cosmetics worth Rs 4.66 lakh. On July 28, Gaurav Srivastava, an officer from a renowned company, had lodged a complaint that some traders of Ranipura Market were selling fake products of Hindustan Unilever and Procter & Gamble company. On the complaint, the police team led by Central Kotwali police station in charge BD Tripathi raided few shops and godown and seized fake products.
The police have arrested trader Shankarlal Jagwani from Muskan Beauty Parlor Centre, Sachchanand Demla of BS Traders on Chhogalal Ustag Marg, Ekansh Pondas from Shivswaroop Enterprises and one more trader.
Lear MorePolice bust currency racket, seize fake notes of Rs 21 lakh
Police on Tuesday said they had busted a gang involved in printing counterfeit currency notes in Chhattisgarh by arresting five men and seizing fake currency amounting to Rs 21 lakh before it was delivered to a Raipur businessman.
The arrested men were identified as Kalaram (29) alias Ramdas Jaitpur, Munnalal (50), Durga Kurrey (52), Resham (24) and Bhupendra Jangde (26). All reside in district Balodabazar, which adjoins Mahasamund, the police said.
Briefing the media, Superintendent of Police Prafull Thakur said the mastermind, Kalaram, and Munnalal were arrested in a raid near Belsonda Gate close to Nadi Mod in Mahasamund district.
Seized from them were fake currency notes of Rs 13 lakh.
The others were arrested from Balodabazar district with the rest of the counterfeit currency, the officer added.
The police also recovered a computer, a printer machine, ink, paper used in printing of notes, a cutter, a pen drive and a motorbike.
Webinar on Combating Counterfeiting and Smuggling during the COVID-19 Pandemic and Beyond, Madhya Pradesh
29/07/2020 | Madhya Pradesh
Illicit trade in terms of counterfeiting and smuggling have emerged as one of the most formidable challenges before the nation, especially during the current coronavirus pandemic which has led to an economic distress. Illicit traders have always attacked vulnerabilities, be it brands, supply chains or consumers. As the perpetrators are looking at innovative ways to deceive the system to carry out their activities, they in turn deeply harm the economic interests of the nation. It is important to note that there is a steep rise in cases of smuggling and counterfeiting during the past few months, adversely impacting not only the government exchequer and industry sales, but also threatening local industries on which livelihoods of many depend.
More so, as a result of the supply chain disruptions, globalisation has now taken a back seat and nations are increasingly looking inwards to fulfill their needs and requirements. PM’s clarion call to promote local manufacturing and local goods will also play a crucial role to address the demand and supply gap and deter cross border smuggling.
Hence it was felt that it is vital to discuss and understand the disruptions caused by the pandemic. As new vulnerabilities emerge, and existing vulnerabilities at greater risk of exploitation by criminals, tackling this global scourge becomes even more acute and urgent in the current scenario. It is with the above background, FICCI’s Committee Against Smuggling and Counterfeiting Activities Destroying the Economy (CASCADE) organized a webinar on ‘Combating Counterfeiting and Smuggling during the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond’ on 29th July 2020. The webinar focused on the state of Madhya Pradesh and was a part of a series of such interactions to be organized across the country by FICCI CASCADE to highlight this issue and elicit response from different states.
Shri Sanjay Kumar Shukla, IAS, Principal Secretary, Industrial Policy and Investment Promotion, Government of Madhya Pradesh was the chief guest at the webinar. Mr. Shukla said, “Government, law enforcement agencies, industry and consumers must come together to identify the gaps and act in a coordinated way to address counterfeiting and smuggling”. He further added that in order to eliminate this problem in India, FICCI can share international best practices and actionable points to the government on how other countries have been able to counter this problem successfully.
FICCI CASCADE Chairman, Mr. Anil Rajput while welcoming the distinguished guests and participants said, “I must compliment the Madhya Pradesh government and the enforcement agencies for relentlessly pursuing the perpetrators of illicit trade. Despite the mammoth challenge posed by the Covid-19 pandemic, their hands on approach and alertness has been highlighted by seizures of large number of cigarettes, liquor, synthetic milk, fake currency and much more. I’m confident that going forward they will keep up their stellar performance and continue to play an extremely important role in our fight against illicit trade”.
Speaking on ‘vocal for local’ being a potent tool in our fight against Illicit Trade, it was emphasized that as India starts to produce strong domestic brands and gradually reduces its dependence on foreign products, the circulation of foreign goods will over a period be reduced. As the profits begin to dry up, it will subsequently demotivate the criminals to further undertake such illegitimate activities.
As several cases of seizures of illicit goods are being reported amid the COVID-19 pandemic, Mr. Vipin Maheshwari IPS, Additional Director General, Special Task Force, Madhya Pradesh Police in his address said that COVID-19 is a wakeup call for all of us. No product category has been spared, be it milk, cosmetics, clothes, footwear, seeds, fertilizers or pharma. Mr. Maheshwari was of the opinion that sustained awareness campaigns for people, necessary amendments in laws, increasing penalties and sentences, more product testing laboratories are some areas where the government, police and business community should work together to eliminate this challenge.
The session was chaired by Mr. P K Malhotra, Former Secretary, Ministry of Law and Justice, GoI and Think Tank Member, FICCI CASCADE. Mr. Malhotra highlighted that smuggling and counterfeiting harms the economy in multidimensional ways and the problem has been aggravated by globalisation and increased mobility. He also emphasized that effective coordination between central and state agencies, strengthening domestic manufacturing, addressing the demand and supply gap and leveraging technology are needed to make a conducive environment free from illicit products.
The webinar underscored the need for policy level coordination between government and the industry to address this menace. Illegal trade not only leads to revenue loss for the government but also leads to unemployment and hence a more focused and collaborated approach along with training and sensitization of enforcement officers for such crimes was much needed. The webinar was attended by industry, government officials, officers from the enforcement agencies and stakeholders in this segment.
Mr. Dinesh Patidar, Chairman, FICCI Madhya Pradesh State Council and CMD, Shakti Pumps India Ltd. made the concluding remarks.
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