2005 (6) TMI 451

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.... Central Excise Commissionerate conducted a raid at the residential premises of the appellant and recovered 15 gold biscuits of foreign origin along with cash of rupees 1,36,165/-. The biscuits and the cash were accordingly seized by the Officers through a Panchnama prepared at the spot. Thereafter, the appellant was arrested and taken to the Customs office where his statement was allegedly recorded wherein he admitted the recovery and disclosed the name of Prashant Jain from whom he purchased the gold biscuits. However, Shri Prashant Jain denied the sale of gold biscuits to the appellant. Again the appellant's statement was recorded wherein he allegedly stated that Prashant Jain has told a lie. 3.By relying upon the statement of the app....

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....er or official, who recorded the statements, is not mentioned at the close of the statements. On left side, only the Superintendent had put his signatures and mentioned "recorded before him" which indicates that Superintendent was present at the time of recording of the statements. The arguments of the learned S.D.R. that the statements were written by the brother-in-law of the appellant also, cannot be accepted for want of any tangible evidence to substantiate the same. Therefore, the alleged statement of the appellant regarding foreign origin of the gold biscuits could not be relied upon for imposing penalty on him under Sec. 112(b) of the Act. 6.Apart from this, when the appellant was arrested in this case, he applied for bail before ....

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....ansaction with him, could not be relied upon under these circumstances by the authorities below. Moreover, from the records, it is evident that the appellant was not in a sound state of mind at the time of raid of his house. He was examined by Dr. Ravi Kumar, who had disclosed that the appellant was under his treatment for the last six years as he was suffering from MD (Psych). The photocopies of the prescriptions of the medicines given by him had also been placed on record. The fact that the appellant was not in his sound state of mind at the time of raid, also finds corroboration from the cross-examination of Vivek Mishra attesting the witness of the panchnama who has clearly deposed that the appellant was in a state of shock at that time....