Kolkata: A man was arrested by the Customs department for alleged involvement in smuggling of betel nut from Malaysia on Sunday.
According to sources, a few months ago, a shipping container loaded with lime stone came to the city from Malaysia. Acting on a tip off, the Customs department checked the container and found that the quantity of limestone was much less and betel nuts were being smuggled from Malaysia. During the probe, Customs officials reportedly arrested two persons earlier. After interrogating them, the officials came to know about a Customs clearing agent identified as Biswajit Dey. Later, on Sunday he was also apprehended.
Sources informed that any company or person has to pay 110 per cent tax for importing betel nut but in case of limestone import duty is quite low. In order to evade the import duty for the betel nut, the accused persons used limestone as a disguise. It is also alleged that Dey had reportedly manufactured documents where it was shown that limestone was being imported.