TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
2007 (5) TMI 14
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....were deemed to have been imposed under Section 111 of Customs Act, 1962. According to conditions laid under Public Notice dated 16-8-91 payment for the imported car should not have been remitted from India, payment for duty of motor vehicle should be have been made in foreign exchange unless specially exempted from the public notice and the importer comes back to India for permanent settlement with declaration to that effect before Customs; he should have stayed abroad at least for two years. Another condition was that import of passenger car not exceeding 1600 CC capacity could be made for a new car, otherwise a car having capacity of 1600 CC or more should have been in use of the importer for more than a year before his return to India. 3. The accused petitioners were proceeded for offences against by the CBI, which investigated into allegations of forgery, fabrication of documents and cheating besides violation of provisions of the Passports Act, in regard to import a nine Honda cars. The CBI, after carrying out investigations, filed a charge sheet, alleging that there was sufficient materials to charge Mohd. Salim Khatri (A-1), M/s. Sealand (India) (A-2) and Shri A.K. Joshi (A....
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....ccording to investigation each passport had Transfer of Residence (TR) entries; the Unaccompanied baggage centre of Customs at Air Cargo Complex, Sahar, disclosed that such entries in passports of Shri Mohd. Sahib, J.M.A. Wahab, Shri K. Shanmugam, Shri P.H. Anthru, Shri Mohd. Ahmed, Shri K. Gangadharan, Shri Paul Daniel Mohandas were bogus as no such clearance was given to them. Likewise, there was no emigration clearance entry in passport of Shri G.R. Bhumayya. 7. According to. CBI, none of the eight cases, at the time of assessment, the passports were checked by Customs to verify if there were any TR entries and departure and arrival entries of the passport holders. Except in case of passports of Shri R.P. Sreedhan and Shri G.R. Bhumayyha, entries of transfer of residence and emigration clearance particulars in the remaining seven passports were forged. Not only this, investigation proved that Shri Mohd. Ahmed and Shri Seikh Hussain Saheb are non existent. The photographs and signatures in the passports in the names of Shri P.H. Anthru, Shri Paul Daniel Mohandas, Shri K. Shanmugam, Shri J.M.A. Wahab were replaced. These aspects showed forgery of the passports. They were obtained....
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.... Revenue Investigation, filed complaint before ACMM, Patiala House Court after obtaining sanction of Collector of Customs, Delhi under Section 132 and 135(1)(a) of Customs Act,1962 against Shri Mohd. Salim Khatri and Shri A.K. Joshi. The investigation by CBI revealed commission of offences u /s 120B, IPC r /w 420/511,468 and 471 of IPC and Section 12(1)(b) and (d) of the Passport Act, 1967 by Shri Mohd. Salim Khatri, M/s Sealand (India) and Shri A.K. Joshi. Sanction order for prosecution of Shri Mohd. Salim Khatri, M/s. Sealand (India) and Shri A.K. Joshi, was issued by the competent authority Lt. Governor of NCT of Delhi under Section 15 of Passport Act, 1967 is enclosed in original. 11. Learned Counsel contended that there was no evidence to show that the petitioners ever induced anyone to part with property, dishonestly, or that they had forged or fabricated the materials. No toss was established; the cars imported by the nine persons were entered in Bills of Entry, according to instructions given by them. The petitioner A-3 was a customs agent, who merely acted on the representation of the importers. It could not be said that the entry of the cars were based on a fraudu....
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....lied upon, may be extracted below: "Upon examination of the evidence on record and the submissions of both the sides, we are of the opinion that the charges made against the present appellants are not well supported by evidence. Even if the passport used were false in the sense that Indian Nationals had travelled abroad to work under false/assumed identities, as the present appellants were not involved with the preparation of such false documents (passport) for such travels, they would not be guilty in regard to the present imports. Prima facie, even the preparation of these false documents could not have been with the intention to avail of the import benefits, inasmuch as the persons had gone out of India well before the issue of the circular in question. May be, for various reasons they chose to travel abroad under false documents. But that does not support the present findings against the appellants as they had not arranged the false documents so as to benefit from the imports. The involvement of Shri Salim Khatri could be only to facilitate the sale of cares after imports and to derive some financial advantage from it. Such a brokerage activity is not illegal under the Customs....
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....st accused. He introduced the account holders. Some of the passports were tampered; all of them had fake TR entries. The Bill of Entries were issued at the behest of the third accused. In these circumstances, the impugned order on charge cannot be said to have been made without application of mind was untenable. The materials do disclose prima facie, grave suspicion about involvement of the accused petitioners, in respect of the acts complained. 18. Section 12 of the Passports Act reads as follows : "12. Offences and Penalties. - (1) Whoever - (a) contravenes the provisions of Section 3; or (b) knowingly furnishes any false information or suppresses any material information with a view to obtaining a passport or travel document under this Act or without lawful authority alters or attempts to alter or causes to alter the entries made in a passport or travel document; or (c) fails to produce for inspection his passport or travel document (whether issued under this Act or not) when called upon to do so by the prescribed authority; or (d) knowingly uses a passport or travel document issued to another person; or (e) knowingly allows another person to use a passport or travel doc....