https://www.taxtmi.com/caselaws?id=391031 Compliance with the statutory safeguard for personal search under the Customs Act was treated as mandatory: the suspect had to be clearly informed of the right to be taken before the nearest Gazetted Officer or Magistrate, and the record showed no proof that this was conveyed, rendering the search illegal and undermining the seizure. The prosecution also failed to prove that the recovered gold was contraband or illegally imported, because the seized articles were not reliably linked to assay or mint reports, custody was unproven, the Section 108 statement lacked independent corroboration, and the house-search evidence was unreliable. The acquittal was therefore upheld. en-us Wed, 08 Jan 2020 00:00:00 +0530 Tue, 01 Dec 2020 11:40:00 +0530 TaxTMI RSS Generator https://www.taxtmi.com/caselaws?id=391031 Compliance with the statutory safeguard for personal search under the Customs Act was treated as mandatory: the suspect had to be clearly informed of the right to be taken before the nearest Gazetted Officer or Magistrate, and the record showed no proof that this was conveyed, rendering the search illegal and undermining the seizure. The prosecution also failed to prove that the recovered gold was contraband or illegally imported, because the seized articles were not reliably linked to assay or mint reports, custody was unproven, the Section 108 statement lacked independent corroboration, and the house-search evidence was unreliable. The acquittal was therefore upheld. Case-Laws Customs Wed, 08 Jan 2020 00:00:00 +0530 https://www.taxtmi.com/caselaws?id=391031