Statements recorded under section 108 of the Customs Act could...

Statements recorded under section 108 of the Customs Act could not be relied on to support undervaluation unless the procedure in section 138B was followed, including examination of the maker, a finding that admission was in the interests of justice, and an opportunity for cross-examination; absent that compliance, the statements were inadmissible. Electronic material retrieved from a laptop was also rejected because the seizure and handling were doubtful, retrieval was not properly shown to be in the presence of the concerned person, and the section 138C certificate was missing. With the contemporaneous import data wrongly discarded and no reliable proof of extra consideration or misdeclaration, rejection of transaction value, re-determination of duty, confiscation-related findings, and penalties could not stand.

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