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CBI to probe seizure of Chinese crackers

Banned Chinese crackers were seized in Sivakasi
Madurai: The Madurai Bench of Madras high court Thursday ordered a CBI investigation into the seizure of banned Chinese crackers in Sivakasi, the country’s fireworks hub in Virudhunagar in May this year.
Since the crackers had come all the way crossing states and reached interior Tamil Nadu, it needed a CBI probe, a division bench comprising Justices N.Kirubakaran and S.Vaidhyanathan held allowing a petition by one A.Muthukrishnan.
The Judges regretted Sivakasi police did not do a proper job when they seized the crackers, worth several lakhs of rupees, from a godown on May 14 last.
“They should have properly interrogated the owner of the godown. If they had investigated him properly, the origin of the entry of crackers could have been cracked,” the Judges said.
Earlier, Customs officials of Tuticorin Port had said they could scan only 20 containers a day since they had only one scanner machine and sought more equipment to check the import of banned Chinese crackers. They were responding to query from the court regarding problem in checking containers loaded with Chinese crackers the import of which had been banned.
The officials said they were doing only random checking and needed more equipment to check the import of crackers being done under the “false declaration”.
The judges also asked the district superintendent of police Maheswaran, who was present in the court, as to why cases were registered under bailable sections.
( Source : PTI )
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