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Bangalore, May 9: The customs authorities at the Bangalore HAL International airport have been taking their duty lightly. With the recent surprise checks on the airport revealing that customs officials are extorting money from passengers, instead of levying custom duty, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has registered a case against nine officials.

At least 10 international flights arrive at the Bangalore airport daily after midnight. CBI learnt that customs officials made maximum money by letting passengers go without paying duty.''For every Rs 50,000 custom duty, the passenger has to pay at least 50 per cent as bribe to get it cleared. If money does not work, the passengers leave behind liquor, electronic goods, passports, mobile phones, cameras and other articles.

The officials hold the passports, asking the passengers to return with the money,'' said a CBI official. In the recent case, CBI sleuths intercepted two Indians (from Bihar and Karnataka) who arrived on a Thai Airways flight on May 5 from Bangkok. They had bribed the officials on duty that night to get away without paying customs duty of Rs 76,394. Four inspectors, four superintendents and an Assistant Commissioner are under the scanner.

''We are probing the case. Passengers bring a lot of goods when they arrive and the custom officials feast on them,'' said a CBI official. The CBI suspects that there are agents who operate on behalf of the customs officials to collect the bribe amount. There have been cases of people being allowed to avoid duty by paying a bribe of Rs 20,000 or supplying liquor. When contacted, Joint Commissioner of the Customs Department Radhakrishnan refused to comment, and said that the department was looking into the matter.

Earlier Probe

The last check conducted by the CBI at the Bangalore International Airport was in 2003, where customs officials were caught with lakhs of rupees.

''After that, this was the next check. Though we know this occurs at a regular basis, we cannot conduct frequent raids, as they might be on the alert. When we get prior information, we conduct surprise checks,'' said the official.

In 2003, 12 cases were booked by the CBI against customs officials at the Bangalore airport for corruption. The biggest case was of a customs official cheating the department of Rs 79 lakh, wherein he did not levy duty and collected bribes from passengers.

In 2005, the Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) charged 55 officials from the customs with corruption in Bangalore.