TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
2024 (2) TMI 776
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....nts valued at Rs. 3,38,99,169/- has also been rejected and the goods covered under these consignments have been ordered confiscation and the various penalties have been imposed upon all found concerned with the impugned consignments. 2. The facts, in brief, as relevant for the present purpose are that an intelligence was received with respect to a container destined for ICD, Dhannad, Madhya Pradesh in the name of M/s Topper Milk (India) Pvt. Ltd. Indore with the manifest mentioning the goods as 'Footwear and Fabric' and that the consignment was intercepted by the Hong Kong, Customs where on examination, the goods were found to be ingots, Electroshok Batons, Knuckle Dusters and suspected counterfeit personal care products thus were seized by Hong Kong Customs after receiving the said intelligence, Directorate of Revenue Intelligence, (DRI) Mumbai Zonal Unit, Mumbai investigated the matter by foremost checking about the Importer Exporter Code (IEC) of Topper Milk (India) Pvt. Ltd. It was found that the said IEC No. 0310056659 was showing that Mr. Ajay Upadhyay and his wife Mrs. Smita Upadhyay as to Director of the said company with their office in Indore, however, the said premises ....
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....he import of consumer & miscellaneous goods by resorting to fraudulent means, which included inter alia mis- declaration of the description and value of the goods, imported in proxy, using IECs of others. (iv) that in the past all the 189 consignments (179 consignments from ICD Dhannad & 10 consignments from ICD Kheda) of consumer & miscellaneous goods were cleared from ICD Dhannad/ICD Kheda, on the strength of manipulated invoices showing a few items, with grossly understated values with the motive of evading payment of appropriate custom duty. Besides, 19 consignments imported by the syndicate in proxy, which were intended to be cleared in the same fashion were seized by DRI at ICD Dhannad (10 consignments) & Nhava Sheva port (9 consignments): (v) 16 IECs were used in these 208 consignments (189 past and 19 live) out of which 12 IECs were found to be non-existent. The 4 (four) IEC holders who could be located, each one of them have stated in their statement under Section 108 of the Customs Act, 1962 that they have not imported any goods and that they had only lent their names for small consideration. They also did not have the financial wherewithal to affect such huge imports....
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....rs to be unsubstantiated as he could not furnish any details about the said Hussain or his employee Ahmed. Similarly, his contention that the 12 live consignments have been supplied to him by one Jacky of China, on credit, is untenable, as he could not furnish even the basic details like full name, address, etc of Jacky. Manjit Singh was asked to furnish details about supplier of the goods, the quantity and description of the goods imported in the aforesaid containers, the value of the goods etc. However, Shri Manjit Singh could not give any satisfactory answers on above aspects and thus failed to establish his claim on the aforesaid goods. (xii) The import documents such as invoice, bill of lading etc, are in the name of dummy IECs with which he has no relation or connection whatsoever. Further, Manjit Singh has neither paid for the goods nor has any documentary proof of ownership of said goods in a manner known to law. Thus, his claim of ownership of said twelve containers, while disowning the past ownership, appears to be motivated to seek provisional release of high value seized goods to the prejudice of public revenue. 3. With these observations, a show cause notice dated 1....
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....self, proceedings against them have been dropped and no penalty has been imposed. With the submissions of the order under challenge, is prayed to be set-aside and appeal is prayed to be allowed. 6. While rebutting these submissions, it is mentioned by the Learned Authorized Representative that the appellant had all knowledge of the impugned illegal imports, he knew that the imports are actually made by Kirit Shrimankar, the appellant only had introduced Ajay Sandhu with Manjeet Singh. They both have admitted in their various statements that they were importing goods in proxy, using Dummy IECs and were clearing the goods from ICD Dhannad/Kheda on the strength of manipulated invoices showing very few items, with grossly under stated values with an intent to evade the customs duties. The admissions need no further proof. Though the admissions of others cannot be read against anyone else at least not for penalizing the later. But we observe that there is no denial of appellant that he knew kirit well and that he had acquaintances with him. Based on these, it is rightly held that appellant being in the department has mis-utilized his position and had abated the impugned illegal imports....
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....actively encourage a person to commit an offence. It should not be mere advice or simple suggestion. Conspiracy on the other hand means an agreement between two or more persons to commit an unlawful act where conspirators must actively agree and prepare themselves to commit that offence. For intentionally aiding the offender the abettor has to facilitate the crime or has to help the offender in committing the crime/offence. In any case, the intention to instigate or conspire or aid the offender to commit an illegal act/omission is utmost important. Reverting back to the facts of the present case, we observe from the record that the appellant himself vide his statement has acknowledged that he was fully aware that Ajay and Kirit were using proxy importers using dummy IECs for importing goods from his port. Kirit and Ajay Sandhu both have admitted this in their statement. There is no apparent denial that there are 427 calls between the appellant and kirit during the impugned period and that the appellant was entertained many times by said Kirit in Kirit's guest house. Admittedly, the appellant also attended marriage of Kirit's son in Mumbai in January 2013 at Kirit's expense as his ....
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....ion is vital for meeting out the allegations But when there is sufficient corroboration to those allegations, denial of cross-examination cannot be held prejudicial. Appellant has also taken plea that mere introducing an old acquaintance to a person and requesting him to find a CHA for clearance of goods through the subject ICDs and/ or providing of a mobile sim card by the said person, cannot and does not in any manner whatsoever establish, even prima facie, that the appellant was aware of the nature of the goods being imported by the said persons and/ or the fact of mis-declaration in such importation on their part and/or use of 'dummy' IECs. It is also mentioned that not only Kirit Singh, but so many other persons used to frequently call the appellant on his mobile to know about his whereabouts so that the CHA employees could contact him for counter singing of the documents. But, we observe that CDR produced on record showing 427 numbers of calls made by the appellant to Kirit Singh during the relevant time are too many in number to prove that there was no bonafide or reasonableness on part of appellant. Phonecalls as many as 427 calls to one single person, do not justify the de....