Woman held for smuggling in memory cards

January 6, 2012

smugler

Bangalore, January 6: A 40-year-old woman was held on Thursday morning for smuggling in 31,520 micro-secure digital chips from Hong Kong.

Officials of the Air Intelligence Unit (AIU), Customs, at Bangalore International Airport (BIA) caught Rosy Bhatia from Delhi red-handed as she tried to walk away with the chips worth Rs 63.04 lakh, packed in 53 polythene pouches and concealed in her stockings, hidden under a salwar suit.

The cards, bearing the “Made in Taiwan” tag, were being smuggled into the country.

The customs sleuths intercepted her after she alighted from a Dragon Airways aircraft from Hong Kong around 2 am and immediately arrested her for offences under Section 108 of the Customs Act, 1962.

Rosy Bhatia, according to a senior AIU official, was carrying approximately 31,520 such cards with the capacity of two gigabytes on her.

The officials, following a tip-off, waited for Rosy Bhatia to arrive and watched her moves. She passed through the green channel without declaring the goods and the value in the customs declaration slip. Questioned by the Customs, she simply said she had nothing to declare.

“She was a smart woman. She had packed these chips in 53 small polythene pouches which were concealed in her stockings, over which she was wearing a salwar,” said an official at the airport.

The AIU team had received specific intelligence from their Delhi counterparts that she would be smuggling in memory cards into the country.

“It was not viable to wait until she reached Delhi although she had an early morning flight to Delhi today (Thursday). There were chances of her disposing the smuggled articles in Bangalore, making it difficult to trace,” the official explained.

Initial interrogation revealed that this was the first time she was travelling through Bangalore. Besides, she had no history (cases registered) against her for smuggling.

“It is very difficult to believe that she was smuggling for the first time. The trade has been going on for sometime,” the official said. Her passport revealed that she had been to Hong Kong over 10 times in the last six months and the duration of her stay was between a day and two on most occasions.

“She would travel to Hong Kong and other places in South-East Asia on the excuse of buying textile goods to sell in India,” another official said.

Rosy Bhatia was produced before a local court here and was granted conditional bail.

Stating that there is a larger network operating in the country, officials said last month a passenger was caught at Kolkata airport, travelling from the same country and smuggling the same good, using the same modus operandi.

Also, a similar consignment was seized by the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence here about six weeks ago, officials said.

They said there was a huge demand for such products in the country. “Our telecom market is growing. With electronic goods like this attracting 27-30 per cent in duties, smuggling them is very lucrative,” the official said.

Gaffar Market in Delhi, National Market and SP? Road in Bangalore, Heera Panna in Mumbai, Fancy Market in Kolkata and similar places in other key cities of the country play home to several shops that sell these products at discounted rates, hurting the licensed retail outlets.

Comments

Add new comment

  • Coastaldigest.com reserves the right to delete or block any comments.
  • Coastaldigset.com is not responsible for its readers’ comments.
  • Comments that are abusive, incendiary or irrelevant are strictly prohibited.
  • Please use a genuine email ID and provide your name to avoid reject.
News Network
June 7,2020

Bengaluru, Jun 7: A 27-year-old man was allegedly killed using deadly weapons by unidentified people here, police said.

The incident took place at deceased, Arvind's rented house in LBS Nagar inside HAL police station limits.

According to police, Arvind is an accused in a criminal case and recently walked out of jail on bail. 

Comments

Add new comment

  • Coastaldigest.com reserves the right to delete or block any comments.
  • Coastaldigset.com is not responsible for its readers’ comments.
  • Comments that are abusive, incendiary or irrelevant are strictly prohibited.
  • Please use a genuine email ID and provide your name to avoid reject.
News Network
July 17,2020

Patna, Jul 17: A 15-year-old girl was allegedly raped by a security guard at the Covid-19 quarantine center of the Patna Medical College Hospital where she was admitted after being rescued from a railway station, police said on Thursday.

The accused, Mahesh (40), was arrested on Wednesday night after being booked under the POCSO Act and other relevant IPC sections by the Pir Bahore police station, according to Arti Jaiswal, the in-charge of the women's police station here.

“The accused is being sent to jail while the victim will be undergoing medical tests on Thursday, as is the norm for all sexual assault survivors," Jaiswal said.

The girl had run away from her home in Nalanda district more than a week ago and reached Barh railway station on the outskirts of Patna to catch a train for Kolkata where her father is a daily wage-earner, police said.

She was spotted by Government Railway Police (GRP) personnel who informed the child helpline. The child helpline personnel, taking note of the girl’s tender age and her disturbed frame of mind, convinced her not to undertake the journey and brought her to the hospital’s quarantine ward for COVID-19 suspects as a precautionary measure, they said.

On the night of July 8, a few hours after the girl's arrival at the hospital, she was caught hold of by the accused inside the bathroom and allegedly raped. The accused also threatened her with dire consequences if she spilt the beans and, as per the FIR, kept harassing her sexually.

She finally decided to speak up when another girl, carrying a mobile phone, was similarly brought to the hospital by child helpline a couple of days ago. Using the fellow inmate’s phone, she narrated her ordeal to the helpline personnel who informed the police.

“Her Covid-19 test report is negative. After her examination, for the sexual assault, by a six-member medical board is over, she will be sent to a shelter home by the child helpline," Jaiswal said.

Meanwhile, state women’s commission chairperson Dilmani Mishra strongly reacted to the incident and said, “We are waiting for the medical reports of the girl. We will ensure that justice is done in the matter.”

Comments

Add new comment

  • Coastaldigest.com reserves the right to delete or block any comments.
  • Coastaldigset.com is not responsible for its readers’ comments.
  • Comments that are abusive, incendiary or irrelevant are strictly prohibited.
  • Please use a genuine email ID and provide your name to avoid reject.
News Network
May 9,2020

Shillong, May 9: The poisonous mushrooms that killed six people at a remote village in Meghalaya's West Jaintia Hills district have been identified as Amanita phalloides, commonly known as the 'Death Cap', a senior official said on Saturday.

Six people, including a 14-year-old girl, of Lamin village along the India-Bangladesh border in Amlarem civil sub-division died after consuming wild mushrooms they collected from a nearby forest late last month.

The wild mushroom has been identified as Amanita phalloides and is hepatotoxic as it directly affects the liver, state Director of Health Services (MI) Dr Aman War told PTI.

He said it has been established after an investigation that the cause of the deaths was the poisonous mushrooms.

At least 18 persons from three families were taken ill after consuming the mushrooms.

The symptoms after consuming the poisonous fungus include vomiting, headache and unconsciousness, the senior doctor said.

Most of those taken ill, including a pregnant woman, have already recovered and gone home. Therefore, people can survive as it depends on the amount of poison that you have consumed. Only one person was unaffected, maybe he did not consume much, he said.

Three people are still undergoing treatment and are recovering. Two of them are at the North Eastern Indira Gandhi Regional Institute of Health and Medical Sciences (NEIGRIHMS) and one in Woodland Hospital, Dr War said.

He said the health department can only appeal to the people, especially those in the rural areas, to refrain from eating wild mushrooms, while the horticulture department should take measures to create awareness.

Comments

Add new comment

  • Coastaldigest.com reserves the right to delete or block any comments.
  • Coastaldigset.com is not responsible for its readers’ comments.
  • Comments that are abusive, incendiary or irrelevant are strictly prohibited.
  • Please use a genuine email ID and provide your name to avoid reject.