Kochi: In a major development marking the first set of arrests in Operation Numkhor, the Commissionerate of Customs (Preventive), Kochi, has arrested five individuals from Assam and West Bengal suspected of orchestrating a massive cross-border luxury vehicle smuggling and fraudulent registration syndicate. This breakthrough follows a wider investigation into a racket that imported high-end cars and heavy lorries from Bhutan without paying mandatory customs duties, involving at least 460 specific vehicles linked directly to this gang. 

The operation, which saw a Kochi Customs team travel over 3,000 km in a single week, has now shifted from vehicle seizures to capturing the key masterminds and their facilitators across state lines.

The crackdown began near the India-Bhutan border on February 22, 2026, with the arrest of Biswadip Das from West Bengal, identified by officials as one of the masterminds of the racket. Das has since been brought to Kochi on transit remand and remains in judicial custody. 

Simultaneously, four other key suspects were apprehended in Assam with the assistance of the Shillong Customs Preventive formation. Among those taken into custody is Dipak Patowary, a District Transport Officer (DTO) in Assam, along with Ayub Ali, MD Mostafa Ahmed (alias Rinku), and Jalal Mandal. 

According to the Customs officers, these five individuals are accused of facilitating a sophisticated ‘ghost’ registration system that allowed smuggled assets to bypass legal scrutiny.

The probe revealed a complex modus operandi where foreign-made vehicles were smuggled through porous borders, while some Indian-manufactured vehicles were exported and then illicitly brought back into the country to evade Customs duties and other taxes. These vehicles were then registered using forged documents, a process that Customs Commissioner (Preventive) Kochi, T Tiju, said was only possible through deep-rooted collusion with transport officials.

“The arrest helps us to investigate deep into the vehicle fraud, which is one of the biggest in India,” Tiju told Onmanorama. “Biswadip has been brought to Kochi and remanded into judicial custody. Other accused persons will be brought to Kochi. We will seek their custody,” he added. 

Customs sources further revealed that evidence suggests many of the 460 vehicles tied to this specific gang were granted legal status through the direct intervention of officers like Patowary. This systemic fraud aligns with a recent report by the Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG), which highlighted a staggering 15,849 vehicles registered across multiple Northeastern states using identical chassis and engine numbers.

Senior Customs sources indicate that the syndicate often used falsified records and exploited loopholes in the national registration portal to create ‘legal’ identities for these smuggled assets. The investigation into the 460 vehicles linked to the arrested group is currently being handled in coordination with the Assam Police.

Operation Numkhor, named after the Dzongkha word for “vehicle”, originally gained momentum in Kerala, where investigators first uncovered a high-profile trail of Customs duty evasion. To date, the Kochi unit has successfully seized 47 luxury vehicles within the state, ranging from high-performance sports cars to vintage SUVs, which were allegedly smuggled from Bhutan. 

As the Kochi Customs (Preventive) unit continues to trace the financial trail and identify more beneficiaries of this scam, officials anticipate further arrests and major seizures. This operation is now being viewed as one of the most significant crackdowns on organised vehicle smuggling in Indian history.