Kolkata: Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) has unearthed a fake export racket and nabbed six persons from Petrapole border at Bongaon in North 24-Parganas.
According to sources, sleuths had recently got a tip that a racket was being operated by some people where some customs officials were also involved. The racket had prepared false export documents like forged purchase orders, forged export invoices and procurement papers, which were used for filing up the shipping bills in Petrapole Customs office. The bills were processed for exports on paper only. The actual goods were not shown physically.
Sources informed that the racket had approximately 51 such fraudulent shipping bills, where goods like pan masala, two wheeler spare parts, three wheeler spare parts and items eligible for higher GST refunds worth Rs 24 crore were shown to have been exported on paper. But the actual goods exported were worth approximately Rs 12 crore. In the documents, the seals of Bangladesh government were also present, which are suspected to be false.
During the raid conducted on Friday, DRI sleuths arrested six persons identified as Sujit Swarnakar, Sajal Swarnakar, Dipankar Pal, Suvankar Pal, Arjun Adhikary and Prosenjit Das of Bongaon, who had played a major role in the fraud at Petrapole. Sleuths have found that several customs officers posted at Petrapole are also involved with the racket. Information regarding their involvement was provided to the Customs department, following which five customs officials have been suspended.