2001 (9) TMI 1068

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....sonal penalty upon various other noticees. However, the appellant is not concerned with the confiscation of the foreign origin goods and is only aggrieved with the imposition of personal penalty upon him. 2. The facts in brief are that on 24-12-98, one truck was intercepted by the Officers of D.R.I., which on search resulted in recovery of 38 packages of miscellaneous foreign origin goods along with 300 bags of CTC Tea. The said goods were seized by the Customs Officers on a reasonable belief that the same were smuggled and CTC Tea was used for concealing the smuggled items. 3. During the course of investigation, the statements of various persons were recorded. As a result of disclosures made in the said statements, the resi....

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....ents cannot be made the sole basis for penalising any person. He, further, submitted that in any case, the said statements are in the nature of hearsay evidence, inasmuch as the driver has only deposed that somebody had told him that Shri Sunil Ghosh was the owner of the goods. As such, he submitted that the impugned Order imposing personal penalty upon the appellant be set aside. 6. I have also heard Shri V.K. Chaturvedi, learned S.D.R., for the Revenue. 7. After going through the impugned Order, I find that the adjudicating authority has based his decision on the statements of the various persons. However, going through the statements, I find that the disclosures made by the said persons, are not based upon their direct kn....