Mayabhushan Nagvenkar

Panaji, Aug 3 A two-century-old river-front mansion in the Goan capital called the Blue Building is proud of the contraband it houses. For, it's a delightful museum of goods seized by customs and excise officials throughout the country over the last few decades.

Inaugurated by Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee during his visit to Goa last week, the Blue Building — named after the colour of its fa�ade — is perhaps the first museum of its kind, depicting the rich history of the Indian customs and central excise department.

The Blue Building which was built by the Portuguese in the 1800s to serve as an official premise for the Alfandega or customs, was later used by the government of India as the Goa headquarters for the customs and central excise department until 2002, when the museum project was conceived.

"We have sourced seized artefacts from all customs warehouses and the other museums across the country," Superintendent Lillian Fernandes, in charge of the museum, said.

Of particular interest is the innovatively presented Battle of Wits gallery within the museum that has recreated innovations — some unique, others bizarre — used by smugglers of contraband to outsmart the custodians of revenue.

The Battle of Wits gallery in this Rs.30 million museum project is now a graveyard of criminally oriented innovations, which failed to pass muster with vigilant customs and excise officials. But they haven't got a burial and are being showcased instead.

"Audio speakers systems filled with watches, gold nuggets hidden in cavities carved inside soaps or tucked away into a shoe sole. We have recreated these methods used by smugglers so that visitors to this gallery realise what our officers are really up against," Lillian said.

She pointed out to a bar of gold slipped under the seat of a compact commode, normally fitted inside aircrafts.

"We heavily rely on tip offs. Any article can be used as a concealing device for contraband," she explained.

A doorway away from this gallery are a few samples of seized contraband in the form of animal parts. What appears to be an unusually shaped brownish brick is actually a five-kilogram elephant molar, seized from poachers. Then there's a rhino horn and a well preserved shark jaw.

The most valued treasure which has found home in the Customs and Central Excise museum is the gold-gilded idol of Jambala, which was smuggled into India from Nepal and was seized by customs officials in Gorakhpur.

More recently, a handwritten copy of the Ain-e-Akbari, which was seized by the customs department in Patna two years ago, has also been showcased.

The Blue Building, which has been refortified with steel girders as a security measure, also has other informative galleries focusing on the customs and excise department's tradition and lore.

The heritage gallery explains through handcrafted models, the gradual evolvement and formalisation of customs and excise mores over thousands of years going back to the Indus valley civilization, where at a well appointed dock in Lothal (now in Gujarat), tax was collected from ships coming in to port.