The Central Bureau of Investigation on Tuesday arrested chief commissioner of Customs in Chennai Saurav Sharma who had earlier served as appraiser of ICD (Inland Container Depot) Tughlakabad in Delhi, for allegedly demanding and accepting bribes from private parties for import consignments that he had cleared in his earlier posting, officials said
The agency has recovered Rs 1 crore cash from his residence, officials added
Apart from Saurav Sharma, CBI has arrested a Customs House Agent - Neeraj, a middleman Ram Krishan Mishra and a private person Kishore Kumar.
CBI Spokesperson R K Gaur said that the former Appraiser, ICD, Tuglakabad, Delhi was regularly pursuing private parties and few officials for payment of pending undue advantage in lieu of import consignments cleared by him during his tenure at ICD, Tuglakabad, Delhi.
“It was also alleged that various parties had been approaching the middleman to pursue their pending matters with the said appraiser. It was further alleged that the appraiser asked the middleman that a person will collect payment of undue advantage (illegal gratification) on his behalf. The middleman had allegedly delivered the payment of Rs 7 lakh as the part of undue advantage (illegal gratification) to said private person”, Gaur said.
CBI caught the middleman, the private person, the Customs House Agent and recovered Rs 7 Lakh.
Searches were conducted at the office of appraiser at Chennai, his previous office in ICD, Tuglakabad and residential premises of accused located at Delhi, Noida, Chennai which led to recovery of incriminating documents and cash of around Rs one crore, he said.
