Daijiworld Media Network- Mangalore
Mangalore, Aug 21: Few months back there was a report stating that an Air India passenger assaulted a Mangalore customs officials in a heated debate over an issue of gold duty payable.
A new incident reported on Tuesday, August 20 has come to the light that a customs officials assaulted a passenger from Muscat who arrived by Air India Express in a locked room!
This incident proved all is not well with international passengers and airport customs officials.
Daijiworld gathered the information from both the passenger and the officials. It is now up to the police to come to a conclusion as to who is under fault.
Passenger's Version:
Ismail (24), was stopped by customs officials at the Bajpe airport as they spotted that he was carrying gold without declaring the imported dutiable items.
The passenger arrived by the Air India flight from Muscat which landed at 7:30 pm on August 20.
Resident of Santosh nagar in Munnur village, son of late Hassanabba, Ismail works as a sales person in Muscat from the past two years.
He was carrying a set of three gold bangles along with the purchase receipt for sisters wedding to be held soon, amounted to 35.51 grams of gold, The officials detained the passenger and asked him to pay a fine of Rs 10,000 and also confiscated his passport.
When Ismail did not oblige with the officials, they reduced the amount to Rs 5000 after an argument. Ismail still refused to pay the amount.
According to Ismail he was then taken to a closed room (Where no CC tv is installed) in the airport where one of the customs official who was in mufti beat him up, and later around 10 pm they released him. The officials also returned the passengers belongings back.
The passenger Ismail who was injured was then admitted to SCS hospital and a complaint has been filed at the Kadri police station.
The officials at Bajpe police station have also been informed of the same.
Airport Customs official's version:
Speaking to Daijiworld, an official stated that such cases are very common especially when it comes to passengers returning to their hometown and carrying excess of gold in flasks or even in an extension cord!
But the official said that he is not aware of assault
If a passenger has been working in a foreign country for more than a year, the female passenger is allowed to carry approximately Rs 1 lac worth of gold while the male passenger is allowed to carry Rs 50,000 worth of gold. This will be regardless of the gold on a person although a person cannot adorn oneself of excess gold other than the daily wear.
As the prices of gold are ever fluctuating on a daily basis the government issues a certain gold rate statement for the airport duty
every fortnight.
As each of the flights land an approximate of 170 passengers disembark which have to managed by a set of 7-8 airport officials.
During this time of rush, around 1% of the people create confusions said the official.
In the current case, the said passenger was waiting and being ignorant with the officials for about two hours. As the officials spotted the jewellery on the luggage scan, they questioned the passenger who failed to oblige.
The source has also stated that the passengers inconvenience has been recorded on the camera. The passenger also required a translator in the local language and the airport officials with the help of the clerks tried to explain and coax him into showing the gold that he carried.
The passenger was asked to pay a duty of the government stated amount and was detained on not obliging.
The official also stated that with the new rule which will arise as of August 26, for passengers being charged duty if they carry any kind of LCD, LED or plasma televisions will add to the such confusions that are created at the customs sections.