2021 (5) TMI 89
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....partment of Revenue Intelligence for offences under Section 135 of the Customs Act, 1962. 2. The facts leading to this petition are as follows: a) The petitioner imports white paper through his concern "M/s Essvee Marketing". The material on record shows that a search operation was conducted on 20.01.2020 and 21.01.2020 at the office, go-down and the residential premises of the petitioner. The material collected during the raid shows that the petitioner had grossly undervalued the White paper rolls imported by his firm "M/s Essvee Marketing" and had evaded the customs duty. b) The petitioner had declared the value of White paper in rolls of 591 numbers of 308.408 Metric Tonnes (for short MTs) to be of Rs. 1,40,27,815/- (Rupees One Cror....
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....e, and this order has not been challenged by the DRI. He states that all the evidence required for this case are already in the custody of the Customs Department. He would state that after this Court has granted interim protection to the petitioner, the petitioner has been repeatedly showing up for investigation. He states that the petitioner had joined investigation on 23.10.2020 at DRI, Delhi and has joined investigation on 27.10.2020, 28.10.2020, 02.11.2020, 04.12/2020, 08.12.2020 and 14.12.2020 at DRI Ahmedabad. He would state that as far offences under Sections 132 and 135 of the Customs Act, 1962 are concerned, no useful purpose would be served in arresting the petitioner as there is nothing left to be unearthed. 4. Per contra, Mr. H....
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....him for appearance on 28.09.2020 before the DRI but he petitioner again did not appear before DRI. Mr. Singh argues that the petitioner wants to appear before the authority only when he is armed with the protection of anticipatory bail. He further states that after getting protection from this Court, without any summons the petitioner presented himself before the DRI Office and stated that he is prepared to join investigation. It is also contended that the petitioner is involved in duty evasion of about Rs. 13 crores for which the petitioner be convicted under Section 135 of the Customs Act 1962 and awarded imprisonment for a period of seven years. It is further stated by Mr. Singh that the petitioner is also involved in transfer of money t....
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.... the DRI has taken the specific stand that whenever the petitioner is called for investigation, unless he is armed with the protection of the Court, he is not prepared to join the investigation. Be that as it may. All the documents are in the custody of the Customs. When specifically asked as to why Customs Authorities require the custody of the petitioner, no specific answer is forthcoming. As stated earlier, all the documents are in custody of the Customs Department. This particular case involves violation of Section 132 and 135 of the Customs Act, 1962. The allegation that the petitioner is involved in transfer of money through non-banking/hawala channels is a subject matter of investigation by another authority and as and when and if an....