Birgunj, February 15

Entrepreneurs of Birgunj, who had to bear the brunt of the prolonged agitation in the Tarai, have accused the police of giving them trouble by stepping out of their jurisdiction.

Most of them have complained against the police’s act of illegally seizing goods brought in after following the necessary procedure at the customs office.

They have also accused the police of impounding a container that had entered Nepal following the necessary procedure at the customs on Friday. The police led by inspector Ganga Saru are said to have handed over the container to the revenue office yesterday.

While entrepreneurs have alleged that police had sent the vehicle to the revenue office even after they showed the clearance letter, police, however, argued that they had to seize the container after the driver could produce no document related to the consignment being brought.

“The police don’t have the right to seize any consignment once it is checked and sealed by the customs and the police’s action here is very unfortunate,” said customs agent Ashokman Shrestha, while customs officials have also rued the police action. Acting customs Chief Lokraj Panta too rued the police behaviour.

“In fact, the police seem to lack knowledge about customs procedures, which is causing a lot of trouble to entrepreneurs,” said Panta, adding that his office has written to the revenue department about the issue.

SP Rajubabu Shrestha, on his part, said the police had to impound the vehicle due to lack of documents.

“When the police team was there, the persons there couldn’t produce the document. Otherwise, we would have released the vehicle,” the SP said.

Police so far have handed over four vehicles to the revenue office of Patlaiya citing lack of documents since September/October last year. The vehicles, however, have been released once the documents are shown.

Similarly, five brand new tractors that the police had impounded in December saying they were illegally brought from India have also been released.