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TMI Blog2014 (3) TMI 169X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... e undue gain at the cost of Revenue. When interest of nation is affected due to export of narcotic substance by these appellants they should not be leniently dealt under the law. Adjudication does not suffer from any legal infirmity for which adjudication sustains and both appeals are liable to be dismissed. Redemption fine is imposable on the exporter Shri Devinder Pramod but not jointly on Shri Devinder Pramod and Shri Mahesh Kumar Gupta. Other than this modification, entire consequence of adjudication is confirmed and both the appeals are dismissed. - Decided against the appellants. - Appeal No. C/128/2008 and Appeal No. C/155/2008 - FINAL ORDER NO. 50647-50648 - Dated:- 21-2-2014 - Mr. D.N. Panda and Mr. Rakesh Kumar, JJ. For the Appellant : Shri Pradeep Jain, Advocate For the Respondent : Shri M.S. Negi, DR JUDGEMENT PER D.N.PANDA; 1. Consequent upon receipt of an intelligence by DRI from China on 19.09.2005 through the consulate General of India, Hong Kong that one M/s Vikas Overseas, B-6, Arya Nagar Society, Patparganj, Delhi having IEC No. 0592009335 had exported Ketamine from India in the guise of Alfa Olefin Sulphonate (AOS) and 1010 Kgs ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ents of M/s Vikas Overseas. (5) Customs clearance of above consignment was made by CHA at the request of Deepak Berry, Director of M/s Direct Oceans Shipping Pvt. Ltd Kalkaji and nobody from M/s Vikas Overseas contacted them. Service charges was paid to Delta by cheques by M/s Direct Ocean shipping Co. Pvt. Ltd. (6) Shri Deepak Berry, Director of M/s Direct Oceans Shipping Pvt. Ltd Kalkaji in his statement recorded under Section 108 of the Customs Act, 1962, stated that they had done freight forwarding of above said three export consignments of M/s Vikas Overseas, B-6, Arya Nagar Society,Plot No. 91, IPExtension, Patparganj Delhi-92. He identified shri Devinder Pramod, Proprietor of M/s NKS and Co., 303, Jyoti Sikhar, Janakpuri Distt. Centre, New Delhi who approached them getting reference from one Mukehs of M/s Blue Art Flower Vash, Kalkaji, New Delhi for the freight forwarding of the above said three consignments and brought those documents as well as collected the shipping documents after clearance from customs and paid their charges in cash. (7) Shri Deepak Berry further stated that one Shri Adish Bansal employee of Devinder Pramod used to visit his office for payment ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... nsignment he procured 450 drums of AOS and kept that in the aforesaid godown. He further stated that remaining 250 drums said to contain AOS were arranged by Lakhvinder Singh and were delivered at the godown above. All the documentation pertaining to export was done by Shri Mahesh Gupta in the name of M/s Vikas Overseas and Customs clearance was made and forwarded by Shri Deepak Berry and remittance of all the consignments have been received in the bank account of M/s Vikas Overseas in advance from the foreign buyers. So also payments to the local suppliers were made in advance. (12) Shri Mahesh Kumar Gupta in his statements recorded under Section 108 of Customs Act, 1962, stated that he was known in the market as Mahesh Bill-Purchewala as his main business was to arrange IEC for opening firms and preparing bogus bills. He met Devinder Pramod through his friend Sahil and Shri Devinder Pramod was working in M/s West Cost Impex Pvt. Ltd in Arunchal Building, Delhi and approached him to arrange a firm which has IEC for export purpose and to open a bank account in the name of that firm. He took fees Rs. 15,000/- from Shri Devinder Pramod. (13) Mahesh Gupta also admitted that he ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... 05 supplied copies of FIRCs towards the inward remittances received in the bank account. Scrutiny of such documents revealed that one M/s Numeric International remitted the export proceeds against exports made by Devinder Pramod and Mahesh Kumar. (19) Account opening form of M/s Vikas Overseas collected from the Andhra Bank, Chandni Chowk, New Delhi, revealed that one Dinesh Kumr was shown as Proprietor of M/s Vikas Overseas and one Lallan Kumar Thakur was introducer of that account in the name of M/s Vikas Overseas. Shri Lallan Kumar Thakur in his statement recorded under Section 108 of Customs Act, 1962, stated that he was working with Mahesh Gupta as a servant and the account No. 2832 of M/s Vikas Overseas was opened by Mahesh Kumar and Mahesh Kumar took Dinesh Kumar with him for opening of the said account and owner of the firm M/s King Trader having account No. 2806 with the bank was introducer of M/s Vikas Overseas which was a firm of Mahesh Gupta. Shri Dinesh Kumar stated that he had signed all the related documents as per direction of Mahesh Gupta; 3. When name of M/s Vikas Overseas came up during investigation, Mrs. Anju Jolly proprietor of the said concern was exami ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... d fake firm name or IEC number for the export in question. Similarly, his statement nowhere implicates him. Because of allegation from overseas source and the goods exported not being questioned by Customs at the time of export no penalty can be imposed on him. The report of Consulate General was not exposed to this appellant for which no allegation can be made against him. It was further submission on behalf of Shri Mahesh Kumar that he had no knowledge of M/s. Vikas Overseas because he was neither partner nor owner thereof. The Adjudication proceeding was based on hear say evidence. 5. On behalf of Shri Devinder Pramod it was submitted that the export was done by M/s. Vikas Overseas under the respective shipping bill. Report of Consulate Genral of India based on Narcotic Bureau s report is an unreliable document since export was not questioned when goods left India. Further, he was not at all involved in storing of the exported goods in the alleged go-down which was arranged by Shri Mahesh Kumar for M/s. Vikas Overseas. The export was done by Shri Mahesh Kumar through Shri Deepak Beri who was Director of Ocean Shipping Pvt. Ltd. When the appellant entrusted all works to CHA he ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... y account. That account was parking place of fraudulent considerations. Both were so intimate and connected with each other that they used a known IEC of another concern and opening bank account in the name of that concern smuggled Ketamin. When Rs. 16 lakhs was paid by Devinder Pramod to Shri Mahesh Kumar Gupta to arrange a firm (one of which was Aggarwal Industries) and that person opened bank account in Dena Bank, Alipur, that clearly proved how both were inextricably connected. It was further established that the real owner of Aggarwal Industries brought out a law suit against Shri Mahesh Kumar for fraudulent use of his firm s name. All these evidence go against both appellants. 9. Heard both sides and perused the record and also thread bare examined the chain of evidence brought out by the investigation to record. 10. Examining aforesaid evidence that came to record and upon hearing the parties, ld. Adjudicating Authority ordered as under: (i) Goods covered by Shipping Bill Nos. 1494427 dated 06.08.2005, 1435176 dated 02.12.2004, 1470670 dated 29.04.2005 and 1491042 dated 25.07.2005 collectively valued at Rs. 29,40,092/- were confiscated under Section 113(d) the Custo ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... goods proved by investigation. 14. It came to record that Shri Devinder Pramod was in search of a genuine firms name with IEC number and Shri Mahesh Kumar extended his support in this regard arranging M/s Vikash Overseas to use name of that concern as instrumentality for export and make ill gain by both of them. Shri Mahesh Kumar and Shri Devinder Pramod also revealed about place of storage of the offending goods before export. 15. Entire chain of evidence successfully proved malafide of both appellants. They were not innocent. But were the sole designer of fraud to defraud customs. They made undue gain at the cost of Revenue. When interest of nation is affected due to export of narcotic substance by these appellants they should not be leniently dealt under the law. Adjudication does not suffer from any legal infirmity for which adjudication sustains and both appeals are liable to be dismissed. However, we may say that redemption fine is imposable on the exporter Shri Devinder Pramod but not jointly on Shri Devinder Pramod and Shri Mahesh Kumar Gupta. Other than this modification, entire consequence of adjudication is confirmed and both the appeals are dismissed. (Pronoun ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
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