The Armed Forces have made it clear that even though it was confirmed that customs agents were involved in importing goods that were subject to customs fraud, no satisfactory action has been taken against them.
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The Armed Police Force has expressed dissatisfaction, saying that the inspection process carried out by the Biratnagar Customs and the work carried out by the Revenue Investigation Office, Itahari, are very weak.
Despite the effective work of the Armed Police Force to secure the border and prevent revenue leakage, the Armed Police Force has filed a complaint with the higher authorities, saying that the functioning of these two bodies is not satisfactory. The Armed Forces have expressed dissatisfaction with the fact that in recent cases of customs evasion, when they have mobilized their entire manpower to recover goods and sent the seized goods to the Revenue for investigation, they are released on very low bail.
Stating that the functioning of the Biratnagar Customs and Revenue Investigation is not effective, the Armed Forces have concluded that controlling smuggling and revenue leakage from the eastern region is challenging. Even when gangs involved in importing goods by evading revenue are repeatedly arrested, the investigation against them is lax and they are released on very low bail, the Armed Forces have also claimed that some employees of these two bodies are working in collusion with smugglers.
The Armed Forces have made it clear that they have not taken satisfactory action against the customs agents even after it was confirmed that they were involved in the import of customs-evading goods. Expressing dissatisfaction with the heads of these two offices, Deputy Inspector General of Police (DIG) Kumar Neupane, the battalion commander of the Armed Police Force Barah Bahini Pakali, said that if such a trend continues, they will not be able to work with high morale.
This was the sequence of events
On October 17, after Barah Bahinipati Neupane received a special information from the Biratnagar Customs Office IPB that clothes worth more than the value mentioned in the notification were being smuggled, a raid was conducted at that place. The police team seized a large quantity of clothes from three different places.
In the process, three people, including the customs agent, were arrested and the investigation was carried out. On the same day, after receiving information that another tractor was returning to the ICP yard, he expressed ignorance when coordinating with Biratnagar Customs Chief Umesh Shrestha. However, when a team deployed under the direction of Battalion Chief Neupane searched the yard, a tractor bearing registration number KO 1 TA 9717 was found. 15 more bags of clothes than mentioned in the declaration were recovered from the tractor, hidden inside an old vehicle parked in the parking lot.
After these incidents, when the Customs Chief verified that more than 15 bags of goods were hidden, customs agents Kundan Mandal, 38, of Biratnagar-15, Chotu Mandal, 26, and Lalan Mandal, 31, of Biratnagar-18, were arrested and sent to the custody of the Area Police Office Rani. Kundan is a character who has been arrested repeatedly in this case. He had previously been arrested twice for cheating at customs checkpoints and smuggling through other checkpoints.
Similarly, although the third tractor was not found based on initial information, on November 19, a joint team deployed on special information found 34 suspicious bags of clothes hidden in a Buddha Puja transportation service located in Biratnagar-15 and took them under control. The goods were handed over to the Revenue Investigation Office, Itahari for further investigation.
After the Revenue Investigation Office refused to raid the transportation service, the armed forces filed a complaint with the Revenue Investigation Department, Kathmandu. Following the complaint, the joint team raided Itahari.
In these incidents, the Revenue Investigation Office Itahari has become angry that the accused was released on bail of only Rs 124,000 and that the same person's firm had to be raided repeatedly and that no action and fine were taken against him even though the customs agent was repeatedly involved in smuggling.
Information Officer of the Revenue Investigation Office Itahari, Bidur Gautam, said that they were released on bail of the same amount, which was more than what was mentioned in the declaration form. Biratnagar Customs Office Chief Umesh Shrestha, however, admitted that there were some shortcomings on their part during the investigation. He has expressed his commitment to improve in the coming days.
