9911796707
TMI Blog1998 (2) TMI 273X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ived the information that passenger cars of various makes were being attempted to be imported into India fradulently by a group of persons in violation of provisions of I.T.C. Intelligence further revealed that the appellant herein was involved in the clearance of cars imported into India fraudulently by misuse of Transfer of Residence Rules. On the basis of this intelligence, the DRI officers visited the Air Cargo Complex, IGI, New Delhi on 16-9-1994 and identified 13 such cars which were imported and pending clearance. On the same day, the business and residential premises of the appellant was searched and certain documents were recovered therefrom. The statement of the appellant was also recorded on the same date and from his statement a ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... nged to one Shri Abdul Samad Wazir Khan who had come to his office in person and handed over his passport to somebody in the appellant's office along with signed documents such as blank bill of entry, Declaration form, etc. for the purpose of clearance of the imported car; that he had already filed bill of entry in respect of the cars imported by persons whose names occur in Sl. Nos. 1, 3, 4 and 5 of the Table set out earlier; that Customs clearance paper for the car imported by person show in Sl. No. 2 (Shri Abdul Samad Wazir Khan) were also being handled by him and were pending submission to Customs. Summons were issued to all the five persons detailed in Sl. No 1 to 5 of the table. Shri Bhupinder Singh did not join the investigation but ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... Samad Wazir Khan exists and the car was fraudulently imported in his name with the connivance and collusion of appellant. The charge of the customs is also that the other three cars had been fraudulently imported and that there was a misuse of the provisions of the Public Notice dated 30-3-1994. 4. A show cause notice was issued on 12-12-1994 to the persons mentioned at Sl. Nos. 1 to 5 of the Table set out above and also to Shri Dimpy Kapoor and the appellant, proposing confiscation of the cars under Section 111(d) and proposing imposition of penalty under Section [112(a)] of the Customs Act, 1962. 5. The Adjudicating authority held that :- (a) Shri Bhupinder Singh is not the real importer of the car and somebody had misu ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... y Kapoor (who the department alleges is the real importer of the BMW car) on the ground that the only piece of evidence in support of this charge is the statement dated 27-9-1994 of one Shri Karan Singh, employee of M/s. R.B. Ramnath Lamba & Sons and this evidence is not sufficient to form the basis for establishing the charge. However, as far as the appellant is concerned, his involvement in the offence of fraudulent import of BMW car has been confirmed only for the reason of his failure to produce Shri Bhupinder Singh before the Customs Authorities. This, to my mind, is not sufficient for the purpose of holding that there was any connivance or collusion on his part so as to warrant imposition of penalty upon him. 6. As regards the M ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
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