THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Luke K George, Superintendent of Customs, was arrested by the customs preventive unit on Tuesday, for smuggling liquor worth Rs 6 crore from a duty free shop at Thiruvananthapuram airport, using the documents of passengers. The customs’ finds suggest that he had leaked the passport details of 13,000 passengers who had travelled through the Thiruvananthapuram airport and embezzled Rs 16 crore out of it. The information was leaked to Plus Max, a Malaysian company.

After leaking the passport number of the passenger, he used the same number to buy goods from the duty free shop and billed under different names. Premium liquor was mainly smuggled in this manner. He even smuggled liquor using the passports of child passengers.

Most of the smuggled liquor was sent to luxury hotels in cities. It has been found that the Malaysian company had paid for the purchase of the cars of the customs officials who were involved in the scam. The duty free shop was run by Plus Max, a subsidiary of the Malaysian company.

Luke K George was summoned to Kochi for interrogation last day, following which he was arrested by the customs preventive unit. He will be produced before the court on charges of smuggling and corruption. The investigation into the scam, which was discovered by the customs preventive unit in 2019, was later taken over by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI). Luke is the first accused in the case. The other accused are the Plus Max duty free shop CEO Sundaravasan and employees Madan, Kiran David.

Even though Luke was arrested by the CBI, he continued to be the superintendent in the audit department, as department level investigations were not initiated against him. However, Rajendra Kumar, who has been appointed as the new commissioner of the Customs Preventive Division, has taken a tough stand, which has led to the arrest. This is the first time a superintendent of customs has been arrested by the preventive section. Francis, a havildar, was fired a few months ago for his alleged involvement in the smuggling.