Customs dept slaps Rs 4.9-crore penalty on six accused in Dollar smuggling case

The Customs Department has imposed a total penalty of Rs 4.9 crore on the six accused in the Dollar smuggling case, including Sapna Suresh and M Sivasankar, the former principal secretary of Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan.

The Customs Department has imposed a total penalty of Rs 4.9 crore on the six accused in the Dollar smuggling case, including Sapna Suresh and M Sivasankar, the former principal secretary of Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan. The case relates to the alleged smuggling of USD 1,90,000 by a former finance head of the UAE Consulate in Thiruvananthapuram to Muscat in Oman. It had come to light during the probe into the 2020 gold smuggling through diplomatic channel case in which Swapna Suresh is a prime accused.

Commissioner of Customs (Preventive) Rajendra Kumar, in an order issued on October 30, imposed a penalty of Rs 1.3 crore on the former finance head of the UAE Consulate Khaled Mohamed Ali Shoukry, for ''smuggling of foreign currency i.e. USD 1,90,000 out of the country''.

The penalty was under various sections of the Customs Act and the Foreign Exchange Management Act.

Apart from Swapna and Sivasankar, the penalty was also imposed on other accused in the case -- Sarith P S, Sandeep and Unitac MD Santosh Eappen. The Customs commissioner has imposed a penalty of Rs 1 crore on Eappen while Rs 65 lakh each was imposed on others.

In the order, the officer noted that USD 1,90,000 was taken out of the country without declaring the same to the Customs department.

''I find that Khaled had actively connived/conspired with Sarith, Swapna and Sandeep, and smuggled the same USD 1,90,000 out of India,'' the order read.