| Date: |
06-12-2014 |
| Subject: |
Firm forged defence ministry letter to export vests |
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NEW DELHI: The ministry of defence has approached the Delhi Police to register an FIR against a firm dealing in military equipment for having allegedly forged the MOD's NOC and submitting it to the customs to export ballistic (bulletproof) overvests to African countries.
The case has been handed over to the crime branch which has registered an offence under sections of criminal conspiracy and fraud and investigations have been initiated by the special task force unit, sources said.
In a complaint filed by Deputy Secretary Jean GV Zingkhai on behalf of the ministry, it has been claimed that a Kanpur based firm produced a forged NOC purportedly issued by the MOD before the custom authorities while exporting the vests to Nigeria.
The customs sent the NOC to the export promotion cell of the department of defence production under the MOD which deals with issue of No Objection Certificate (NOC) for exports in respect of items covered under the definition of Military Stores.
"The system is that as and when an application for expert of such item (Military Stores) is made by an exporter, the same is decided by his department on case to case basis. It is only after NOC in respect of a particular item of Military Stores has been issued by this Department that an item defined under this category is allowed to be exported," the complainant said.
After enquiry, the same was found to be forged and not having been issued by the MOD. An in-house enquiry was also conducted which confirme that the letter was forged. Subsequently, customs department imposed a penalty of Rs 27,27,250 under various Sections of the Customs Act, 1962 on the firm.
"With the approval of the then Raksha Mantri, the matter was referred to CBI for investigation. The CBI's report confirmed that an attempt was made by the suspect firm for exporting overvest to Nigeria on the basis of fake ' No Objection Certificate'. But, they did not succeed in it, as the same was detected by the Customes Deptt. Later on the firm obtained valid NOC for exporting the goods as such no wrongful loss has been caused to the Govt. Exchequer. The involvement of public servant is also not appearing in the matter," the complaint reads.
Source : timesofindia.indiatimes.com
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