Daijiworld Media Network - Mangaluru (MS) 

Mangaluru, Nov 25: In a joint operation conducted by the officials of Belagavi, Hubballi and Mangaluru, a huge fraud has come to light. Goods worth crore of rupees that were being illegally transported between Mumbai and Mangaluru in luxury buses have been confiscated. 

Officials belonging to various departments, including transport and commercial tax, conducted lightning strikes at Belagavi, Kolapur and Nippani check posts and more than 30 luxury buses have been seized. 

Transport commissioner Shivaprakash, joint transport commissioner Purushotam, commercial tax commissioner Shrikar and additional commissioner Nitesh Patel directly guided the operation in which the lead was taken by Belagavi commercial tax joint commissioner Raman, Hubballi commercial tax joint commissioner Shri Itagi and Mangaluru zone commercial tax joint commissioner Udayshankar. 

The confiscated buses include those belonging to three separate companies. The officials have disclosed that these buses were transporting goods that did not have any bill or permission. 

Most of the goods were meant for vendors in Mangaluru and Udupi. The officials said that more investigation will be carried out and more stringent rules will be implemented in coming days to prevent the same. 

In addition, the officials have said that higher level of operation will be conducted, if the travel companies do not adhere to the rules. 

Due to this joint operation, it has come to light that huge amount of taxes were being evaded due to this illegal way of transportation. The worth of confiscated goods is said to be in lacs of rupees. But there is no official confirmation regarding this.