Kochi: Actor Dulquer Salmaan was questioned for nearly seven hours by the Kochi Customs Preventive Commissionerate on Tuesday as part of the ongoing investigation into the high-profile Bhutan luxury vehicle smuggling case under Operation Numkhor.

The actor, whose four luxury vehicles were seized earlier during the investigation, appeared before Customs officials at their Kochi office after being summoned. His statement was recorded from 11 am to 6 pm. 

A senior Customs officer said the questioning was primarily aimed at establishing the ownership trail and procurement of the seized vehicles.

“The questioning mainly centred on the four vintage luxury SUVs seized from him. We sought details regarding from whom the vehicles were purchased, how the transactions were carried out, the payment trail, and the documents relating to their acquisition. As part of the investigation, we are verifying the complete chain of ownership of every seized vehicle to determine whether they originated from the Bhutan smuggling network,” the officer said.

According to Customs sources, Dulquer maintained that the vehicles had been purchased through legal channels and that he had no knowledge of whether they had originally been smuggled into India from Bhutan. He had also submitted all documents relating to the vehicles to the investigating agency earlier.

Operation Numkhor is one of the country's largest investigations into the smuggling of high-end luxury vehicles from Bhutan by evading customs duty through forged registration records and fabricated ownership documents. Investigators believe the racket exploited loopholes in vehicle registration systems to introduce premium imported vehicles into the Indian market without payment of applicable duties, causing substantial revenue losses to the exchequer.

So far, seven persons from different states have been arrested in connection with the case. Those arrested include alleged kingpin Bishwadeep Das of West Bengal, a senior engineer with a leading IT company; Zain Marwa, a partner of Kozhikode-based MS Roadway Cars; alleged middleman Yash; and Deepak Pathowari, District Transport Officer of Bongaigaon in Assam.

The remaining accused arrested in the case are Assam natives Ayub Ali, Mohammed Mustafa Ahmed and Jalal Mandal. Investigators allege that Pathowari played a crucial role in facilitating the illegal import of at least 36 vehicles into India using forged documents.

The investigation has also exposed the alleged involvement of officials in Assam's Motor Vehicles Department. The Assam Police earlier found that 464 vehicles had been registered in Bongaigaon using forged documents, with most of them falsely showing Lakshadweep as their place of first registration. 

The Comptroller and Auditor General of India had separately flagged that 15,849 vehicles bearing identical chassis and engine numbers were operating across Assam and other northeastern states, indicating large-scale manipulation of vehicle registration records.

Customs officials suspect that the syndicate used forged registration certificates, manipulated chassis records and benami transactions to legitimise smuggled luxury vehicles before selling them to buyers across several states. More than 50 such duty-evaded vehicles have been seized in Kerala alone during the investigation, while the probe continues to trace additional vehicles and identify all beneficiaries of the racket.