Acting on the direction of the Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court, the district police on Monday registered cases against four Customs officials for allegedly assaulting a 57-year-old businessman from Chennai on the pretext of inquiring him.

The businessman, K Malik, stated in his complaint that on March 29 he was waiting to board a transit flight at the Madurai Airport to Chennai after arriving from Singapore, when the four officials took him to a secluded place for inquiry. When the businessman asked them for the reason, the Customs officials reportedly told him that they had received a tip-off that gold bars were being smuggled from Singapore to India, Malik said in his complaint to the police. Though the businessman claimed innocence, the officials did not listen to him, and confined him in a room for a thorough check, Malik alleged.
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After examining his belongings, the officials forced him to remove his clothes. “They stripped me and harassed me,” Malik claimed adding that the officials also assaulted him physically and caused mental agony.

Finally, they let him off after imposing duty on the four imported cameras he was carrying with him. After Malik reached Chennai, he had got admitted himself in a private hospital and sent a complaint to Madurai Superintendent of Police V Balakrishnan detailing the incident. He had also filed complaints with the Perungudi police, but they failed to act, he claimed.

Finally, Malik moved the Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court. Cases were registered against the four customs officials under sections 342 (wrongfully confining a person), 323 (Voluntarily causing hurt), 355 (Assault or criminal force with intent to dishonour the person and 506 (1) (threatening) of the IPC.