37-year-old held for illegally importing rifle scopes in Mumbai

On Monday, the preventive wing of Customs arrested an importer for allegedly attempting to smuggle 100 rifle scopes into India from China, by falsely declaring them as “Telescopes (Binoculars)”. Rifle scopes is an item that is banned under the Foreign Trade policy.

“Suleman Mahida, 37, is younger brother of Abdul Kader who is the proprietor of M/s Mahida Impex and an importer of cutlery and gift items in South Mumbai. We arrested and seized the consignment of rifle scopes from the former,” said a Customs officer. Suleman was remanded to judicial custody till October 21 by the local court, he added.

During interrogation, Suleman revealed that he was handling the entire business operation, including handling the imports of M/s Mahida Impex, since Abdul has been suffering from panic disorder (a psychiatric condition) for the past five to six years.

Defence lawyers Sujay Kantawala and Ravi Hirani maintained that the said consignment was mistakenly brought to India from China and that their client had collected the consignment by mistake. “We are therefore praying for his bail,” they said.

Customs officers informed that the rifle scopes were imported from a firm termed Yiwu Wangxueyuan Import & Export Co. Ltd., China and that the packing list mentioned the items as telescopes which was not the case. These rifle scopes are meant for mounting rifles so that the target can be more accurately attacked.

Officials say that the entry of these dreaded equipment may endanger the country’s security, if they fall in the wrong hands such as anti-national elements, for example. They also point-out that the importer has not produced any licence or authorisation from DGFT for import of these items.