Ex-customs official gets a year in jail for graft

A former top Customs official was today sentenced to a year in jail by a CBI court for taking bribe worth nearly Rs four lakhs from a private firm for clearing its goods without levying the applicable customs duty on it.
Special CBI Judge B Kalam Pasha also imposed a fine of Rs 60 lakhs on erstwhile Custom Deputy Commissioner K S Chandrasekhar, posted at Air Cargo Complex of the Nedumbassery airport, for favouring the city-based Mars Cargo Agencies.
It also awarded two year rigorous imprisonment to Raju Mathew and George Bastin, partners of Mars Cargo Agency and directed them to pay a fine of Rs 30 lakhs each.

All three were found guilty under various sections of the Prevention of Corruption Act, a release from the CBI's Anti-Corruption Branch here said.
The CBI had found that the customs official had obtained "illegal gratification" on eight occasions totalling Rs 3,79,350 in the form of demand drafts from the agency as a reward for the favours shown to it.