2017 (11) TMI 554

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....arried by him. After such verification, the officers recovered 1937.9 carats of precious / semi precious stones, Indian currency Rs. 1945/- and foreign currency 1775 dhms, alongwith some misc. goods. The precious/ semi precious stones were valued by the approved valuer at Rs. 7,95,450/-. Further, follow up investigation was conducted by the officers. Valuation expert committee was formed for valuing the product again. The committee valued the products at Rs. 13,86,600/-. In the follow up investigation it was revealed that the appellant had earlier purchased similar goods in India and on the basis of statement and passport entries it was held that there were undeclared movements of precious / semi-precious stones out of and into India in the....

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....seized from him. The main grievance is with reference to confirmation of duty demand and imposition of penalty on the purported past activities of the appellant. There is no evidence of the appellant carrying precious or semi-precious stones in the past out of country and again bringing it into India in violation of provisions of Customs Act. The impugned order is purely based on presumption and evidence of statement of purchase of these goods in India. Accordingly, ld. Counsel pleaded that the duty demand and penal action with reference to past consignment cannot be justified. He also pleaded for setting aside the penalty under Section 114AA. 3. Ld. AR for the Revenue supported the finding of the lower authorities. He submitted that the....

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....examined the impugned order. The impugned order records that the local seller (Mr. Ansari, Jaipur) had admitted sales of precious / semi precious stones to the appellant in the past. Based on such diary entries the lower authorities proceeded to conclude that the appellant carried out precious / semi precious stones to foreign countries in the past and brought back the same during arrival in Jaipur. We find that there is no corroborative evidence on these transportation of impugned goods from India and back to India. The evidences which will categorically establish such movement are not available. It would appear that the lower authorities mostly based their finding on the general statement of the appellant about past activities and also on....