2021 (7) TMI 1028

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....or the Petitioner. Shri Sasthamangalam S. Ajithkumar, Advocate, for the Respondent. ORDER This is an application for anticipatory bail under Section 438 of Cr. P.C. 2. The applicant is under the apprehension of arrest by the customs authorities in OR No. 7/2020 of Ernakulam Customs in connection with a gold smuggling case. The applicant submits that he is a businessman at Calicut and that....

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.... Section 108 of the Customs Act, notice shall be given to him so that he gets an opportunity to approach this Court afresh under Section 438 of Cr. P.C. Accordingly, the applicant was directed to appear on 12-8 2020, and he was subjected to interrogation and his statement recorded under Section 108 of the Customs Act. He was made to sign the statement and compelled to write as dictated by the offi....

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.... be interfered with. It was observed that Section 108 does not contemplate magisterial intervention. As the power under the statute is exercised by a Gazetted Officer of the Customs Department, the person summoned is under obligation to state truth upon any subject in respect of which he is examined. He is not absolved from speaking truth on the ground that such statement is admissible in evidence....

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....sions of the Supreme Court in Padam Narain Aggarwal (supra) and Romesh Chandra Mehta (supra) have been followed by the Division Bench of this Court in Kishin S. Loungani v. Union of India and Others [2017 (1) KHC 355 = 2017 (352) E.L.T. 433 (Ker.)] and by a Single Bench of this Court in Sahal V.J. v. Senior Intelligence of Officer [2019 KHC 488 = 2020 (371) E.L.T. 178 (Ker.)]. 6. The applica....