9911796707
TMI Blog2006 (12) TMI 160X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... za (in W.P. No. 55/02) came to the Customs House and inquired about the said person. His name was disclosed as Ankush Tukaram Chodankar. It is the case of the respondents that on their interrogation it was found that the contraband goods were landed on 15 -11-84 in which several persons were involved and insofar as the petitioners were concerned, they were responsible for transhipping the contraband consisting of 195 packages from the Arab dhow in two fishing trawlers viz. 'Shri Ganesh' and 'Virginia Isabel' and the same were brought to Old Goa jetty. From there they were loaded in three trucks by using ferry boats at Old Goa and Diwar with the connivance of the crew of the ferry boats the goods from the trawler were loaded in the trucks in mid-stream, one by one and were subsequently transported from Marmagoa to the house belonging to one Yeshwant V. Vete and Vishnu Y. Vete and were stored in two rooms of their house at the instance of Shri Mangaldas Kanekar of Banda. During the course of investigation, the Customs officials were able to seize and take over possession of the contraband goods under the panchanama dated 24/25-11-84 under the reasonable belief that the same was liabl ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... .108 of the Customs Act, 1962 and that it was extracted under duress and they were beaten while in customs custody and as such on this ground also their statements are not admissible in addition to other pleas in their defence. 4. The petitioners being aggrieved by the impugned order preferred Customs Appeal No. C/109/89 BOM of 1989 and C/110/89 BOM before the Customs, Excise and Gold (Control) Appellate Tribunal, Bombay. The appeals came to be disposed by Order dated 10-10-01 [2002 (139) E.L.T. 369 (Tri.-Mum.)]. The Appellate Tribunal concurred with the finding of the Addl. Collector of Customs and Central Excise and dismissed the appeals. 5. Common grounds have been agitated before this Court while assailing the orders passed by the Addl. Collector, Customs and Appellate Tribunal :- Firstly, that the search and seizure conducted by the respondents/officials were beyond their jurisdiction and therefore the whole proceedings were vitiated. Secondly, it is submitted that there has been no material placed on record to show that the alleged contraband which came to be seized were foreign goods and in the absence of such proof, the petitioners cannot be penalized and confiscati ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... to be released as these are two distinct proceedings and consideration for holding the accused guilty of having committed offence under the Customs Act and for levying penalty and passing confiscation order required different degree of proof and as the material placed before the Addl. Collector of Customs satisfactorily established the complicity of Petitioners, there is no merits in their case. 8. In reply to the contention of the learned counsel of the petitioners, the Customs officials from Goa had no jurisdiction to levy penalty on the petitioners, mainly on the fact that the contraband came to be seized in Sawantwadi in State of Maharashtra. It is submitted that as the contraband were smuggled on the shores of Goa which were brought in the fishing trawlers by the petitioners from an Arab dhow and loaded in trucks which was subsequently found and seized at Sawant wadi in no manner take the case beyond the jurisdiction of the Customs Officials from Goa. 9. The learned counsel for the parties for that purpose placed reliance on the Notification regarding appointment of officials of the Customs and their jurisdiction and according to the said Notification for the purpose of te ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... through the show cause notice and it cannot be gainsaid that the show cause notice was vague and there is no mention of the specific provisions under which it was proposed to levy penalty on the show cause notice which deprived the petitioners to meet the case of the respondents and therefore reliance placed by the learned counsel for the petitioners on the case of B. Lakshmichand v. Government of India [1983 (12) E.L.T. 322 (Mad.)] decided by learned Single Judge of the Madras High Court does not come to the rescue of the petitioners, as in the said case, there was no specific reference to clauses of Section 112 of Customs Act and the Court held that the proceedings should not be allowed on vague and camouflaged hypothesis and prejudice must be presumed to have been caused to the accused in those circumstances and as in the said case the authorities were not very clear as to whether clause (a) or clause (b) of S. 112 would apply, the proceedings came to be quashed which is not the case here. 11. The third contention which has been raised before this Court is that the petitioners were not given a fair opportunity to contest the inquiry proceedings pursuant to the show cause noti ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... petitioners and others were never in custody of the Customs Department so as to coerce them into making a statement by illegal means. On the other hand what has come on record is so far as the petitioner Estevan D'Souza is concerned, he rather went to the Customs Department on his own in search of one of his crew members who was accosted by the Customs officers on suspicion and on their interrogation it was revealed to the Customs officials that landing of contraband goods have taken place at Goa and that the goods have been transported to the godown of Vete at Banda in Sawantwadi and thereafter all the concerned persons were summoned and interrogated and their statements came to be recorded. The fact also stands corroborated by the search and seizure of the contraband goods. 13. Therefore, on considering the facts placed on record, this Court is of the view that there is sufficient material brought on record by the Customs officials to show that the petitioners have aided and abetted the smuggling of contraband goods by transporting the same in their trawlers from high seas to Old Goa jetty which fact has been duly established not only by the statement under S.108 of the Customs ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
|
