Mumbai Scan

Jt Customs commissioner transferred

T R Malik, joint commissioner of Customs at the international airport, has been transferred to the Customs, Excise and Gold (Control) Appellate Tribunal (CEGAT) following the arrest of a passenger on Thursday night. The passenger, who had allegedly smuggled 1,300 mobile handsets worth nearly Rs 1.5 crore, is believed to have telephoned Malik on his cellular phone when Customs officials insisted on screening his baggage on the X-ray machine.

Sources also revealed that Malik had been in touch with one Sarbans Singh, the contact man who had come to receive the passenger. The passenger was an alleged carrier of mobile phones and Thursday's was his third trip abroad this month, investigations revealed. He had made 11 trips abroad last year alone.

The assistant Customs commissioner on duty insisted that the bags be screened though the passenger claimed he had nothing to declare. Malik had allegedly told his staff that he was expecting a friend, and that heshould be `welcomed'.

The assistant commissioner's firmness is being seen as a telling effect of Chief Commissioner of Customs G S Tampi's new drive to clean up the department following searches carried out by the Central Bureau of Investigation at the Air Cargo Complex last week.

Nadeem files appeal in London High Court

Music director Nadeem Akhtar Saifee has filed an appeal in the London High Court against the order of the Bowstreet magistrate who had held that there is a prima facie case against him for his alleged role in the conspiracy to kill T-Series boss Gulshan Kumar in Mumbai in August 1997.

The appeal will be heard in the next two months, according to Special Public Prosecutor Ujjwal Nikam, who had appeared on behalf of the Mumbai police in the extradition proceedings which were initiated by the Indian government against the London-based Nadeem.

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