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2018 (5) TMI 363
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.... H 5759. The laden containers were identical and red in colour bearing same No.CRXU1143513 and 'Cronos' markings. The container brought in the Truck No.7797 was found to be sealed with one time bottle seal and contained 116 nos. of Granite Slabs of various length and breath. These containers were accompanied by original and duplicate invoice No.28 dt. 27.7.2011 of M/s.Prism Granites, Madurai intended for consignee M/s. Figard Building Materials Trading Co., Dubai with declared value of US$ 5964. The second container on examination was found to contain reddish brown colour wooden logs which were subsequently confirmed as Red Sanders without any accompanying documents valued at Rs. 1.12 crores. As per the investigations, it appeared that Shri....
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.... an Order No.10/2012 dt. 3.10.2012 apart from absolute confiscation of the consignments of 11.20 MTs of Red Sanders, 116 Granite Slabs, the containers and trucks, a penalty of Rs. 10 lakhs was also imposed, inter alia on Shri Surya Prakash Kothari under Section 114 (i) of the Customs Act, 1962. Aggrieved, Shri Surya Prakash Kothari has preferred this appeal. 2. Today when the matter came up for hearing, on behalf of the appellant, Shri B.V.Kumar, Ld. Advocate made various submissions which can be broadly summarized as under : i) All the three earlier consignments of granite exported by Prism Granites under shipping bill Nos.2182171 dt. 17.1.2011, 2478606 dt.10.2.2011 and 3352041 dt. 23.4.2011 had been intercepted by same Customs Inspe....
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.... CC Madras 1997 (940 ELT 174 (Tribunal) 3. On the other hand, Ld. A.R Shri B. Balamurugan supports the impugned order. He draws our attention to para-62 of the impugned order. He submits that as correctly observed by the adjudicating authority, receipt of money from unknown person shows the complicity of Prism Granites. Appellant cannot also claim innocence when he had allowed his IEC to be used by other. Circumstantial evidence shows that appellant had assisted in the offence of smuggling activity using the granite slabs to cover up Illegal export of red sanders and by allowing the export to be made in the name of Prism Granites. 4. Heard both sides and have gone through facts. 5.1 Discernably, from the facts on record, it appears....
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....pains to convince us that Shri Surya Prakash Kothari (appellant) can at best be said to have been negligent by his act of sharing IEC code and in allowing export proceedings to be remitted through his bank account even when he had already got the sale price by way of advance in cash from Shri City Raja @ Vasudevan. We do not find this proposition as convincing. It is not the case that Shri Surya Prakash Kothari was a neophyte in business, and unaware of the minimal aspects of the manner of sale and export of granite slabs. We are also unable to fathom how the very convoluted manner of receiving sale proceeds, by cash in advance, subsequently receiving sale amount from abroad, that too from an unknown person, through banking channels and the....
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.... set aside allegations of abetment, inter alia on the grounds that there was no knowledge of the proposed offence, no benefit to be borne by the abettors therefrom, no allegation or suppression of consideration having been demanded by the alleged abettor, the action and omission only being of dereliction of duty or negligence etc. In the present case, however, we find that appellant even though might not have been actively involved or connived in the attempted export, surely derived benefit by way of being enabled not only to get repeat orders of granite slabs from Shri Vasudevan but also safeguard his financial interest by taking advance as collateral and return the same back to Shri Vasudevan only after the equal amount had been remitted ....