Crackdown on corruption: Narendra Modi fires 15 senior customs officers

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Days after the Centre forcibly retired 12 senior Income Tax officials, it did the same with 15 other senior customs officials.

The latest batch was let go on Tuesday, confirmed reports. The officers held ranks like the principal commissioner, commissioner, additional commissioner and deputy commissioner of Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC). All of them were accused of corruption.

The senior-most officer who was sacked in the latest purge is Principal Commissioner Anup Srivastava.

He faces charges like criminal conspiracy and bribery, and CBI is investigating two cases against him. He is also accused of harassment, extortion, and was named in disproportionate assets case.

Similarly, Commissioner Atul Dikshit is also being probed by CBI in cases of fraud and disproportionate assets.

Joint Commissioner Nalin Kumar, who was already under suspension, was also dismissed from service on Tuesday. CBI is probing him for allowing fraudulent drawback.

Sansar Chand, Commissioner in Kolkata, was named in a bribery case, while Chennai-based commissioner G Shree Harsha, had a disproportionate asset case to the tune of Rs. 2.24 crore against him.

Meanwhile, Commissioner Vinay Brij Singh had a DRI case against him of over-invoicing.

Centre also sacked Deputy Commissioner Amresh Jain of the Delhi GST zone. He had a Rs. 1.55 crore disproportionate asset case against him. Once, Rs. 95.24 lakh was also recovered from him.

These sacked officers will get three months pay and allowances, the Finance Ministry confirmed in a statement.

Other officers who were sacked are Additional Commissioner Ashok Mahida (DG Systems, Kolkata), Additional Commissioner Virendra Agarwal, S S Pabana (under suspension), SS Bisht (Bhubaneshwar GST zone), Vinod Sanga (Mumbai GST zone), Raju Sekar (Vizag GST zone), Mohd Altaf (in Allahabad) — and Deputy Commissioner Ashok Aswal (Directorate of Logistics, Delhi).