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Issues involved: Imposition of penalty based on the statement of a co-accused without corroborative evidence and the validity of the penalty imposed.
Summary: the present case, the penalty was imposed on the appellants solely based on the statement of a co-accused, Shri Birendra Rai, whose identity was unknown and provided a fake address. The appellants argued that no corroborative evidence was presented, and Shri Birendra Rai did not participate in the proceedings. The appellants relied on precedents like Jaswinder Singh v. Collector of Customs, New Delhi for setting aside the penalty. On the other hand, the respondent supported the impugned order. Upon hearing both sides, it was observed that the contraband silk was allegedly recovered from Shri Birendra Rai, who did not appear during the proceedings and provided a false address. Despite a search of the appellants' premises yielding no incriminating evidence, the penalty was solely based on the uncorroborated statement of the absent co-accused. The Tribunal cited previous cases like Jaswinder Singh and Mehmood Khan v. Commissioner of Customs, NER, Shillong to emphasize the importance of independent corroboration in such cases. Consequently, the Tribunal found the penalty unjustifiable due to the lack of evidence against the appellants and set aside the impugned order, allowing the appeal in favor of the appellants.
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