24 bottles of beer sold to six-year-old!

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The Plus Max duty-free shop that functioned at the Trivandrum international airport had ‘sold’ 24 bottles of beer and one bottle of Foreign Made Foreign Liquor to a six-yearold. In another instance, a woman who arrived for an emergency surgery purchased huge quantities of beer and FMFL from the outlet. Even those who landed to attend the funeral of their close relatives left the airport with baggage-full of FMFL if the sale records maintained by Plus Max is correct.

These glimpses of the fraud committed by the Malaysian firm was revealed in an affidavit filed by the customs preventive commissionerate before the sessions court Ernakulam, opposing the bail plea of K Sundaravasan, CEO of Plus Max Duty-Free Pvt Ltd.



Sundaravasan is the only senior official of the duty-free chain who could be nabbed in the case. Customs is trying to extradite Prakadeesh Kumar, the director of the company, who is in Malaysia. The affidavit quantifies the fraud committed by the firm by manipulating sales record at Rs 6 crore and diverting foreign currency at Rs 2.14 crore.

TOI had, on April 23, reported the Customs probe into leakage of traveller data, including passport numbers, from the airlines manifest at the airport for illegal purchase of goods from the dutyfree shop.

It was found that details of 13,000 international travellers were compromised for purchases from the shop run from September last year to April this year. The fraud came to light after the Customs randomly checked the travel details of those who had ‘purchased’ from the shop.

The parents of the sixyear old, the woman who travelled for medical reasons and afew others who reached here for the funeral of their relatives have now filed cases with the police against the misuse of their passport data. The copies of the FIRs in such cases were also produced by Customs to oppose Sundaravasan’s bail plea. Sundaravasan was arrested on June 2 following the licence suspension and closure of the duty-free shop on April 19.

The affidavit also reveals that customs superintendent Vivek V was manhandled by P Madan, the location manager of the duty-free shop when the former raided the shop in December 2017. Subsequently, Vivek had to avail medical treatment and a police case has been filed against Madan and two other shop employees for obstructing a public servant from performing his duty.

Another complaint was filed before the range IG by Vivek and his colleague, Chitra C R, based on an intelligence report that there was a threat to their life. Copies of complaints and police FIRs in these cases have also been submitted by Customs along with the affidavit.