My Encounter with Mini India in Mumbai Customs by Hemesh Chhabra

 The author has spent almost four decades in the field of Customs and Central Excise/GST. Having spent a majority of his career in Mumbai Customs, he has enumerated his experience with Mumbai Customs in this memoir. 

 

The book starts with the author's joining in Mumbai Customs as a Preventive Officer in the March of 1986 and goes through his training followed by the different postings assigned to him by the department. It concludes with the author being promoted to the rank of Assistant Commissioner of Customs and Central Excise and being posted to Vadodara in October, 2014. In between there are facts, emotions, insights, incidents and opinions shared by the author which make for great reading. There is culture shock along with a feeling of awe having experienced mini India as mentioned in the title. 

He has worked during and after the Liberalisation Reforms of 1991 and the 1993 Mumbai Bombings. Round-the-clock work in the customs department ensured that he was off duty during the Mumbai Floods of July 26, 2005. He has gone through a big change in customs work in Mumbai and India and has separately brought forward the same in informative sections on colleagues and changes seen in Bombay Customs of 1986 to Mumbai Customs of 2014 after the conclusion on account of posting to Vadodara.

 

Some excerpts are being reproduced below.

Working at Sasoon Dock

To work in Sassoon Dock was nearly an ordeal for me. I was a Jain, a strict Vegetarian and in Sassoon Dock everywhere there was a stink of fish. There were heaps of various kind of fish which were to be auctioned/sold. On wharf and nearby approach roads, there was always slippery water dripped from the moving tempos & hand carts, and herds of fisherman who did not take bath for months and thus emitting a bad odor all the time. For hours I had to deal with them, enquire about their catch and other relevant information to record their return and issue further "Shera" (permission) for fifteen days/one month. After working fifteen hours (6pm to 9am) in the night there, my clothes/uniform absorbed that fishing smell. So, whenever I returned in public transport my co-passengers looked at me with detest. Even my newly married wife used to open the door while gripping nose and directed me to Bathroom and instructed me to put the uniform and my mufti - dress in the bucket full of detergent and come out only after taking an hour-long shower.

Mumbai Airport - Mini India

Airport was an extension of my encounter with Mini India in the Mumbai Customs. Coming across to the passengers of all parts of India, and interacting with them I understood their culture, their languages, their names, surnames, color & creed etc. I found that by just knowing the surname one can almost get to know the state of the person, For example, Bannerji, Chatterjee, Bandyopadhyay, Sen, Sarkar etc., were invariably from Bengal, Jha, Sinha, were from Bihar, Patra, Mahapatra, Sahoo, Dash, Mohanty, Swain were from Orissa, Meena from Rajasthan, Patel, Parmar from Gujrat. Most of the male Gujrati were having BHAI and female had BEN in their names. Similarly Punjabi ladies had "Kaur" in their name. I noticed that surnames were suffixed with 'kar' in Maharashtians (like Tendul"kar"). I also came to know that Hindu names were suffixed with Cristian Surnames in Karnataka and Konkan Area (For Example Rajiv D‚Souza), surname ending with ...yam (like Subramaniam, Chidambaram) were from Tamilnadu whereas the surname ending with ..yan (for example Rajayyan, Rajendran) were from Kerala. Likewise Reddys were from Andhra and a south Indian "Anna" was akin to a "Bhaiyya" of North India. Of course, this gave only a broad idea and there could be exceptions.

Four days of Television (or duty?) - when work becomes fun

In one of the cases where the unaccompanied Baggage was being examined by a senior PO, more than 1400 video Cassettes were found in the personal effects of the transferee. Since I was juniot, I was assigned to watch the contents of the Video Cassettes. To ensure that it did not have any objectionable contents, like blue film or anything concerning threat to safety and economy of India. So, a VCP (Video Cassette Player) was arranged in the MMTC Strong Room, where a 21" inches Color TV was available and where POs were deputed to keep an account of precious and semi-precious cargos' import export. For four days I just enjoyed those Video cassettes containing many south Indian Regional Films, religious discourses, health tips etc. and nothing objectional was noticed by me. As an ex-Bank employee, it was really enjoyable for me, since in Bank all the time I had dealt only with the figures while writing the Day Book. As a junior PO It was a joy to watch the films as doing official duty.

During the 1993 Mumbai Bombings

In R & I (Rummaging and Intelligence), after adjudication Cell I was posted in DIU (Dock Intelligence Unit) for a small period. In DIU there were 10-12 Officers to gather information and make cases in Docks Area. We were assigned night patrol duties also. It was in this period, to be precise on 12-03-1993, that Serial Bomb Blasts in Mumbai took place. I was on day duty and getting the news of Bomb Blasts every now and then like a cricket score. "Ab Blast kakan hua."  "ab kitni casualty ho gayi?" .. etc…

Talking about an esteemed superior

While doing one night duty I received a phone call from Arora Sahab (Additional Collector Laxman Das Arora) to accompany him up to Santacruz Airport, as he was leaving for Allahabad on transfer.... At Santacruz Airport he talked about intelligence work, cultivation of informers, my experience & working in R & I and what not, while standing and sipping coffee at the Tea-coffee shop counter. It was my last meeting with the high-profile Customs’ Additional Collector. After few months, might be due to the alleged enmity, while working with Mumbai Customs, germinated between him and the dreaded smugglers, on 24 March 1993 he was assassinated in Allahabad.

Airport after the Liberalisation Reforms of 1991

In 1998, I was again posted at Airport And a fresh cycle of interaction with the passengers pan India and from all the five continents started. in my second Airport postings, I met with the same duty responsibilities which I have mentioned in my earlier Airport Posting, though I found lot of changes in the procedure of customs clearance, which was the after effect of the opening up of the Indian economy led by Shri Man Mohan Singhji through his 1991 landmark Budget, influenced by the worldwide policies of "Glasnost & Perestroika". The import of Gold was allowed on payment of duty in foreign currency on completing certain conditions. Free Allowance which was earlier mere 1250 was raised to Rs. 12000/- per passenger. The overall effect of the less stringent customs rules was that less crowd in arrival Halls and fast clearance of incoming air passengers. Oral declaration of the baggage given by the passengers were accepted in normal course, thus creating a faith on each other i.e., between customs law enforcing officer and the passengers.

Air Intelligence Unit
 

During my tenure in AIU, we made many cases and noticed novel Modus Operandi to smuggle gold and drugs. We found out that crude Gold in the wired form could be conceal in the specially made grooves of a trolley bag or suitcase, Crude gold could be conceal in electric motors of Mixer-grinders, gold biscuit could be concealed in the nappy of a toddler in hand, it could be concealed in children toys, concealment of gold after wrapping with carbon papers, it could be brought on person, Gold could be handed over to the Airlines Staff for taking out of the Airport, Gold could be left in the Aircraft, to be collected later by cleaning staff of the airlines, gold biscuits could be handed over to tainted immigration officers in the Cigarette packet while getting immigration clearance, Gold could be smuggled with the connivance of hand-in-glove Customs Officers, uniformed as well as AIU Officers. Similarly Foreign Currency could be exported illegally concealed in clothes, on person, in vegetables, in Mangoes after removing pulp & Seed and then stuffing FC wrapped in cello Tape etc. Similarly, Drug could be concealed in the False Bottoms of Suitcases, in the guise of medicines, in the food containers, in the hard cover page of a book, in the hollow rods of trolley bags etc. I must say that smugglers were very innovative in evolving methods for smuggling activities. In this connection once I was told by an accused of gold smuggling that in Dubai there are jewellery shops which could supply the crude gold in any form/in any shape as per the order of anyone and that Gold Smuggling was in total control of notorious gangster Dawood Ibrahim. As I mentioned in the narrative of my first Airport Posting, still the Gold was occasionally smuggled in eaten pieces by unemployed youths, called carrier, on the payment of some money.

Initiative in the line of duty

 After completion of my Nhava Sheva tenure, I was posted in SIIB- Export (Special Investigation and Intelligence Branch - Export). Here there was lot of file work. I had to go through the old cases files, did follow-up actions wherever needed. On going through the old cases, I came to know that in one case, even the extended period of five years under the section 28 of Customs Act-62 (applicable in the cases of suppression of facts), was going to be over within three weeks. I immediately brought the fact into the notice of my the then Deputy Commissioner who instructed me to prepare the Show Cause Notice as soon as possible. Accordingly, I worked on the SC even in the late nights, all seven days, forgetting any holiday and thus was able to complete a flawless draft SCN well before one week of the dead line of issuing the SC. It was presented before the then Commissioner, Export. She went through it thoroughly and appreciated my effort of completing the flawless draft SCN of demanding customs Duty of more than 74 lacs, that too within a short time.

 

Anglo Indian officers of Mumbai Customs

I joined "Our Mumbai Customs" in 1986, it meant that the Customs Act, 1962 had been enforced just 24 years before that and the many officers recruited after the implementation of CA -62 were on the verge of retirement (That time retirement Age was 58 years) So I had the opportunity to be guided by those experienced officers. Among those was the last and old lot of Anglo-Indian Officers, who were recruited through Employment Exchange. Their names were enough to scare a junior novice officer like me ... Kingsford, Providence, Hancock, Julian, D’Mellow, to name some of them as I had not come across many Anglo-Indian persons at my native place. Today I may say that they might not be knowing legalese minutiae of the Customs Act, except Chapter XIII, but they knew very well how to command the respect from the public and juniors.

Some changes in the department between 1986 and 2014

When I joined Mumbai Customs, Mumbai Docks had Nine gates (Detailed in my Floating Posting Above) for the movement of Import Export cargo and "Chakris" for pedestrians. These gates were manned round the clock and around 54-55 Pos were posted in floating to man these gates. Gradually the number of gates were reduced due to their less requirement because the containerised cargo movement was picking up rapidly. The quantum of Import Export cargo had increased manifold, for which these gates were found incompatible and as such the Docks were reshaped. There were Huge-huge warehouse Sheds in the Docks and in the vicinity to keep Breakbulk Cargo for safe custody. After my joining in 1986, since the mode of transportation of import export cargo from breakbulk was rapidly changing to containerized cargo in 20' and 40' containers. So, there was a rapid decrease in the utilization of warehouse sheds. I witnessed slowly- slowly sheds were disappearing and the movement of Container Trailers increasing in the docks and on roads. The ratio between breakbulk cargo and containerized cargo was 8:2 which now has been changed to 1: 9.

On corruption in Customs

Customs Department is wrongly believed to be a corrupt department in general and Mumbai Customs in particular. But Corruption is individual's choice and it cannot be associated with any particular government establishment as a whole. Every Government Servant is fallible to corruption. Corruption is present in every Government department with a difference of degree. Corruption is built-in human character by nature. It runs in the veins and hence it infects everyone, lesser or more. In my early days in Mumbai customs my senior officers would often tell me .."Don't run after money and money will come to you, if it is there in your destiny. Bhagya mein Paisa hai to aayega hi aur Bhagya mein nahi hai to aakar bhi chala jayega,"), I remembered their "Mantra" throughout my service-career and today I can proudly boast that because of this "Mantra", I had peace of mind and could complete my entire service career without any blot or blame of corruption.

An incident regarding escorting a helicopter belonging to a German adventurer from JNPT Nhava Sheva to Mumbai Airport and the clearance of the same from customs, immigration and air traffic control along with the numerous hurdles in the way was really interesting. Being long it cannot be reproduced fully here. Similarly, an incident regarding arranging disbursal of bills of private transporter from New Delhi showed urgency. The incident also had  non payment of air fare to the author since a non-Air India flight had to be boarded in emergency. All in all, this was a very interesting and refreshing book. I would love to read it again.