2008 (6) TMI 449

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....umbai sector for its onward journey from Mumbai to Dubai with scheduled departure at 5 PM. The officers in presence of panchas recovered eight paper packets each stuck to the metallic support of back rest of seat Nos. 35E, 35F and 47F of the aircraft. These packets on being cut and open were found to contain assorted foreign currency equivalent to Indian  Rs. 69,89,644/-. Officers kept a discreet vigil. After completion of boarding of all the passengers the Intelligence Officers picked up two passengers viz. Suresh Ghadge and his wife Smt. Sunita Ghadge who were occupying seat No. 35E and 35F. These passengers were interrogated by Air Intelligence Officers wherein Shri Suresh Ghadge admitted that he was aware of the packets containing ....

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....d by the Computer and no specific command for allocation of specific seat was given by him. The show cause notice was adjudicated and by an earlier order the foreign currency which was not claimed by anyone was confiscated but the proceedings against Shri Suresh Ghadge, his wife and Shri Vijay Tayade were kept in abeyance as simultaneous prosecution proceedings were launched and were pending. The adjudication was done by the present impugned order wherein the present appellant Shri Vijay Tayade was found involved in attempt to smuggle out foreign currency and accordingly a personal penalty of  Rs. 5,00,000/- was imposed on Shri Tayade. 2. Shri Vijay Tayade in his defence stated, that in this case simultaneous proceedings were i....

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....en all the passengers are issued seats and still vacant seats are found in the aircraft. Therefore, there was no way in which he could have allocated specific seats to the two passengers. 4. The aircraft landed at 5.45 Hrs from Toronto - London - Delhi - Mumbai and thereafter it was fully under the security control of Air India after its arrival till its departure. As a measure of security, the security guards have to maintain register regarding the persons who entered the aircraft and the security guard in-charge of the aircraft has in his deposition clearly stated that Shri Tayade or Shri Ghadge were never allowed access to the aircraft. Shri Tayade further submitted that he has repeatedly asked for verification of the foreign cur....