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The Central Bureau of Investigation has arrested the Joint
Director General Foreign Trade (DGFT) of Surat and a middleman
while demanding and accepting bribe of Rs. two lakh from the
complainant. The middleman a Chartered Accountant accepted
the bribe on behalf of the Foreign Trade official, yesterday.
In this connection, CBI had registered a case u/s 7 &
8 of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988 and section 120-B
of IPC on the basis of a complaint from a Merchant Export
Firm of Surat engaged in export of Dyed and Printed Fabrics.
According to the complaint, the firm received Import-Export
Code number from the office of Director General of Foreign
Trade (DGFT) and Registration-cum-Membership Certificate from
Synthetic and Rayon Textile Export Promotion Council, Surat
in lieu of Export of Goods. The firm had exported 13.23 lakh
mtrs of Dyed and printed polyester Fabrics under Duty Free
Replenishment Certificate (DFRC) Scheme to a firm (100% EOU)
located in Valsad, Gujarat, as deemed export. As per the Exim
Policy of the Govt. of India, the firm had received DFRC Licenses
from DGFT, Surat after submitting the prescribed format of
Appendix 10-D with the original ARE-3 and Invoice which was
authenticated by the Range Inspector and Superintendent of
Central Excise attached with the 100% EOU firm of Valsad.
25 licenses were issued to the Merchant Exporter for import
of goods mentioned in the licenses.
Between 13th and 15th July, 2004, the firm had exported Dyed
and Printed Fabrics to the said 100% EOU Unit of Valsad for
which they were in need of remaining eleven number of licenses
for import of materials against the said Export and the matter
was pending with the Joint Director General, Foreign Trade
Office, Surat from September, 2004. However, the Joint DGFT
did not issue the remaining 11 licenses pending since
September, 2004 whose export value is nearly Rs.One Crore
. The Joint DGFT called the representative of the Merchant
Export firm in his office and demanded a bribe of Rs.53 lakh.
This demand was made in the presence of the arrested mediator
and the Chartered Accountant and the demand was that the amount
should be paid to the mediator. The said Joint DGFT had also
threatened to cancel all the 25 DFRC licenses given before
hand and also to impose penalty in case the bribe amount was
not given. Both the arrested are being produced in the designated
court.
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