CAT upholds dismissal of customs official who helped smuggle over 700kgs of gold

Kochi, Sep 25 (PTI) The Ernakulam bench of the Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT) has upheld the dismissal from service of a customs official accused of being part of a smuggling ring that brought over 705 kilograms of gold into the country through the Thiruvananthapuram international airport between 2018-19.

The bench of judicial member Justice Sunil Thomas and administrative member V Rama Mathew said that on evaluating the records before it, it was of the view that there was sufficient material available with the disciplinary authority to find the official -- B Radhakrishnan -- guilty and dismiss him from service.

"There were sufficient materials based on which the authorities arrived at its conclusion. Hence, we find no reason to interfere with the conclusions arrived at by the disciplinary authority in Annexure A6 (dismissal order). The appellate authority also seems to have evaluated the entire facts in the correct perspective and arrived at conclusions.

"On an evaluation of the entire materials, we are satisfied that there is no scope for interference in Annexures A4 (show cause notice), A6 and A10 (order of appellate authority). The authorities have arrived at the proper conclusions on the basis of the materials gathered against the applicant. Applicant (Radhakrishnan) is not entitled for any relief," the tribunal said.

It dismissed Radhakrishnan's application challenging the June 2021 decision of the appellate authority upholding his removal from service.

He had also challenged the show cause notice issued to him in January 2020, after his arrest in May 2019 by the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI), and the February 2020 dismissal order of the disciplinary authority.

Principal Additional Director General CBIC Sumit Kumar, the then disciplinary authority who had issued the proposal to detain Radhakrishnan under the COFEPOSA Act and then ordered his dismissal from service, welcomed the CAT decision as "a huge victory".

Kumar, who is presently posted in Mumbai, told PTI over the phone that he took the decision to detain Radhakrishnan under the COFEPOSA Act provisions in order to avoid a lengthy preliminary enquiry under Rule 14 of the Central Civil Services (CCS) Rules.

It also allowed him to take a quick and decisive action directly under Rule 19 of the CCS Rules against the errant official as "it was a national security issue".

"Smuggling is always a national security issue. That is why I took that particular decision. The tribunal has now upheld the decision taken by me," he said.

Kumar also said that during his tenure in Kerala, he was able to dismantle this particular smuggling ring which had smuggled over 700 kilograms of gold into the state.

According to the CAT order, Radhakrishnan's involvement in the smuggling racket was revealed after the DRI intercepted two passengers who arrived at Thiruvananthapuram airport from Dubai on May 13, 2019 and seized gold bars weighing close to 25 kilograms from them.

The subsequent DRI probe revealed that Radhakrishnan connived with the kingpins of the smuggling racket and facilitated smuggling of around 705 kilograms of gold in hand baggage of 26 passengers by manning the X-Ray scanner machine when these "carriers" were scheduled to land at the airport, the CAT order said.

According to the DRI investigation he had abetted the gold smuggling on various dates between October 2018 to May 2019, the order said.

The order also mentioned that according to the DRI probe, during that period, carriers with gold weighing 10 kilograms or more landed at Thiruvananthapuram airport on 64 dates and each time, Radhakrishnan was manning the baggage scanning machine.

"Thus, the authority concluded that the applicant was guilty of the charges alleged against him, based on the statement of witnesses, accused, CCTV footage, electronic and other evidence.

"On the above basis it was concluded (by the disciplinary authority) that the applicant was not a fit person to be retained in service and that he should be imposed with the penalty of dismissal," the tribunal noted in its order. PTI HMP HMP ROH