KOCHI: Even as the city police recovered the containers that were taken away by a gang from the Vallarpadom International Container Transshipment Terminal (ICTT), a fresh controversy has erupted over the incident, with the terminal operator DP World putting the blame on the enforcement agencies for goof-up.“We still stick to our earlier version. The containers have been released from the terminal based on the documents issued by the shipping line as per the standard practice. The three containers were coastal containers and the same can be directly taken from the terminal if delivery order from the shipping line, Form SEZ 4 (form 13) by the shipping line and bill of coastal goods are produced. It is up to the enforcement agencies like the Customs and the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) to check the authenticity of the documents,” DP World sources said.Meanwhile, the city police have successfully traced the three containers, which were taken away by a group of people from ICTT on May 14 after submitting forged shipment documents.Central Circle Inspector D S Suneesh Babu said the containers were recovered from Wellingdon Island. “We are on the look out for two people in connection with the incident. They seem to have made forged documents to take the containers from the terminal,” he said. As per the preliminary investigation, the trawler operators do not have a role in the incident. They took the consignment from the terminal after they were given the documents.It was on May 14 that a gang came to ICTT and claimed the three containers brought from Gujarat with ceramic tiles worth Rs 17 lakh. They presented forged documents as proof. The ICTT officials came to know about the fraud only when the actual booking agent, Seaways Shipping Company, approached them with the original documents.Following the incident, the Seaways Shipping Company lodged a complaint with the Mulavukad police station. It is learnt from police sources that the fraudsters abandoned the containers midway as they were sure that the police would trace them.The incident had brought to light the existing loopholes in checking the authenticity of the shipper while delivering containers at the terminal. Though the DP World is harping on the procedures followed for clearing the delivery of the containers, it has not mentioned about the security measures being implemented at the terminal to prevent such incidents.
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