Mumbai, March 22 The Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) has seized a total of 11,060 prohibited walkie-talkie sets and second-hand hard disk drives (HDDs) valued at approximately Rs 9.25 crore at the Nhava Sheva Port in Navi Mumbai, officials said.
A father-son duo, who are the owners of two Mumbai-based firms that imported these goods without proper permissions, have been arrested under the Customs Act, according to an official release issued on Saturday.
Based on specific intelligence, a team of DRI officials seized Baofeng BF-888S walkie-talkies worth Rs 2.5 crore, as well as second-hand HDDs (considered e-waste) valued at Rs 6.75 crore.
The prohibited items were concealed among miscellaneous electronic products valued at Rs 21 crore. The entire consignment of Rs 30.25 crore from eight containers shipped from China was seized for misdeclaration, officials said.
The Baofeng BF-888S walkie-talkies have been blacklisted by the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) because they operate beyond permissible frequencies and can be used for unauthorized communication, posing a threat to national security. These devices require specific licenses.
Second-hand HDDs also cannot be imported without authorisation from the Directorate General of Foreign Trade.
