Excise Department at Toll Post, Lakhanpur has been in hot pursuit of Toll evaders of cement operating around the Minor Toll Post, Kotepunnu–where these evaders make repeated attempts to illegally import cement through various clandestine routes spread all across the area, an official spokesperson said on Saturday.
According to the spokesperson, on the intervening night ofTuesday and Wednesday at Village Hariachack near Minor Toll Post, Kotpunnu, twovehicles Mahindra Bolero-make bearing Registration No.JK08D-9228 and TATA-407-makebearing Registration No.JK08C-4527 loaded with 70 and 170 bags respectivelywere intercepted by the officials. Both the vehicles were found without tollreceipt and therefore, it was clear that these vehicles had entered the statethrough some illegal route in the area. Vehicles were seized and penaltyamounting to Rs 43,560 and Rs 98,560 were recovered from both the vehicles.
It is worthwhile to mention that earlier a penalty of Rs2,31,000 had been recovered from a cement laden truck bearing RegistrationNo.JK02AR-7481 which had been seized with the assistance of local PoliceAuthorities.
The whole operation was supervised by Deputy ExciseCommissioner, Ashish Kumar Gupta under the guidance of Excise Commissioner, MRaju, and carried out by Excise & Taxation Officers Rohit Sharma, SandeepGupta, JavedIqbal, Balwinder Singh, Aquib Malik, Arafat Goni, Davinder Singh,Rajesh Kumar and Mohammad Rafi.