Excelsior Correspondent
LAKHANPUR, Apr 10: The sleuths of the Excise Department at the Toll Post Lakhanpur today thwarted yet another attempt of smuggling when it seized a full truck of willow clefts that was trying to move out of the State.
The truck bearing registration No.HR63-7367 reported at Toll Post Lakhanpur for assessment of the goods and as per the documents enclosed, the vehicle was shown loaded with Paint consigned by M/s ITC Ltd. Tpt Nagar Jammu to M/s ITC Ltd Amritsar vide Challan No.050 dated 09-04-2015 with vehicle number wrongly mentioned as HP68-7867.
However, when the vehicle was put to physical check by the concerned inspector, it was found fully loaded with willow clefts, the raw material for manufacturing cricket bats, not permissible in terms of J&K Willow (Prohibition on Export Movement Act 2000).
As per the documents accompanying the vehicle, it is owned by Ms. Maya Devi of Delhi Road, Gurgaon. The vehicle along with the seized willow clefts have been handed over to the Forest Protection Force of Forest Department for further investigation in the matter. The staff of the Excise Department has been very active in foiling such attempts of evasion and during the year 2015-16, a total of 26359 willow clefts were seized, as compared to 4550 during the year 2014-15.
The whole operation was performed by the team of the Excise Department comprising Excise & Taxation Officers G L Sharma, Virinder Singh Billowria, Farooq Choudhary and Vikas Anand, Inspectors Pankaj Sharma, Anil Chandan, Arun Kumar and others.
Follow our WhatsApp channel
