In a sweeping crackdown on illegal luxury vehicle imports, sleuths of the Customs Preventive Commissionerate carried out simultaneous raids at around 30 locations across Kerala on Tuesday, seizing 36 high-end cars allegedly smuggled into India from Bhutan using forged documents. Commissioner T Tiju said the searches — codenamed Operation Numkhor (Bhutanese for “vehicle”) — included raids at the residences of actors Prithviraj Sukumaran, Dulquer Salmaan, and Amit Chakkalackal, among others.
“If they can smuggle cars, gold and narcotics like this, then they can bring anything else. Therefore, it is a major threat to national and economic security of the country,” he emphasised, as per a report on PTI.
Beyond smuggling, the Customs Preventive team is probing related illegalities including income tax and GST evasion, money laundering, and whether proceeds were funneled into terrorist financing.
Modus Operandi
Investigators uncovered that the smuggling racket had adopted highly sophisticated techniques to get vehicles registered within India. Some cars were dismantled and brought in as parts, some were concealed inside containers, while others were driven across borders under the guise of “tourist vehicles.” Once inside the country, the vehicles were given fake registration papers carrying seals of the Indian Army and even foreign embassies, including the US Embassy, to lend an air of authenticity.
The probe also revealed manipulation of the Parivahan portal, in certain cases with insider assistance, to tamper with records of registration dates and ownership history. For example, a 2014 model was shown on official records as having been in service since 2005. Such falsification misled buyers into believing the cars came from legitimate Army or embassy sources. Many of these vehicles were eventually sold off through unrecorded cash transactions, leaving investigators with little trace of the money flow.
Actors And High-Net-Worth Buyers
While Tiju clarified that none of Prithviraj’s vehicles were seized, two cars belonging to Dulquer Salmaan were identified. He stressed that many high-net-worth individuals may have purchased such cars “knowingly or unknowingly.”
The day-long raids were carried out in Kochi, Thiruvananthapuram, Kozhikode, Malappuram, and other districts, with assistance from the Kerala Transport Commissionerate, the Anti-Terrorism Squad, and state police.
