Suspended After Midnight Check: Four Ahmedabad Customs Officials Face Action Over Unrecorded Search as Passengers Flee and Refuse to File Complaint

Four Customs officials at Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel International Airport have been suspended following an unrecorded 3 am interception of two passengers in the early hours of September 4, who later alleged extortion but continuously evaded authorities, fled their hotel, and flatly refused to lodge a formal complaint.

The disciplinary action against Superintendents Vinay Arora and Kuldeep Paliwar, alongside Inspectors Bharat Meena and Kishor Kaushal, was ordered after an internal probe exposed critical protocol breaches: the officers failed to wear mandatory body cameras and made no entry in the official search register. However, the deeply suspicious conduct of the passengers who made verbal allegations of bribery but repeatedly ran from investigators forced senior authorities to take swift internal action against the on-duty team for operating off the records.

Passengers Alleged Extortion, Then Refused to File Complaint and Fled Hotel

The incident began in the early hours of Friday, September 4, following the arrival of Emirates flight EK 538 from Dubai. On-duty officers pulled aside two passengers, identified as Asik Rustom Patel and Vosim Shah from Kosamba in Surat, for questioning during routine screening before letting them leave the terminal.

At 7 am, Patel called a senior Customs official alleging that the team had harassed him, demanded cash, and taken a packet of his valuables. What followed, however, was a series of highly evasive manoeuvres by the passenger:

• Refusal to Record Statement: When senior officers asked Patel to come in and lodge a formal written complaint to initiate a legal probe, he abruptly refused and ended the call.
• Fleeing the Hotel: Customs officials located Patel at an Express hotel in the CTM area of Ahmedabad and dispatched a team to record his statement. Patel checked out and fled the premises moments before officers arrived.
• Hostile Pushback in Kosamba: When investigators tracked his primary address to Kosamba, Surat, Patel called back Customs personnel to angrily demand why officers visited his home, threatening legal action rather than presenting his complaint or turning over evidence.

Protocol Breakdown Left Department Defenceless

Because the passenger refused to file a formal complaint or meet with investigators, senior administrators audited the 3 am shift logs to verify what actually happened. The review uncovered a complete operational blackout during the search:

• Zero Register Entry: The four officers made no entry in the official passenger-examination register to log why the duo was stopped or released.
• Body Cameras Disabled: None of the four personnel wore or activated their assigned body-worn cameras during the questioning.
• No Official Trail: The simultaneous lack of camera footage and written logs left the department with no objective proof to disprove the passenger's verbal allegations or confirm if contraband was involved.

"When dealing with international passengers, body cameras and official registers are the only defence against false claims," a senior Customs official stated. "By failing to log the check, the officers created a complete administrative failure that made it impossible to verify the incident."

Gold Smuggling Angle Under Scanner

Investigating teams suspect a potential gold-smuggling angle behind the midnight search. With no formal complaint on record and the passengers refusing to cooperate, authorities are analysing airport CCTV footage, terminal movement logs, and duty rosters to determine whether undeclared goods were brought in from Dubai and why standard search protocols were bypassed.