1990 (2) TMI 54

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....ess against him in a criminal case filed by Respondent No. 1 Assistant Collector of Customs, Bombay for violation of the provisions of the Customs Act, 1962. 2. The Petitioner is the owner of a shipping vessel 'Al Ebrahimi' duly registered as a country craft M.S.V. 'Al Ebrahimi'. The said vessel is used by him for exporting commodities to Middle-East countries and importing products from those ....

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....e said confessional statement, however, was subsequently retracted by the Tindel. The Investigating Agency of the Customs Department, however, could not unearth any other independent evidence. 5. After the aforeslated seizure and investigation, the adjudication proceedings were taken up with notices to all the accused including the Petitioner. On hearing the Customs Officer and perusing the rec....

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....s physically tortured and coerced to give the said statement and to implicate the Petitioner, the owner of the vessel, while he was illegally confined in the Customs Office and ill-treated. 8. It is pertinent to note that even though the order of the adjudicating authority was passed in April 1988, yet when the complaint was filed in December, 1988, the copy of the adjudication order was not pl....

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.... and the remaining four witnesses at Serial Nos. 9 to 12 are the Panchas who were called at the time of seizure and search. Thus, it is more than obvious that apart from the retracted confession of the co-accused, the complainant does not rely on any other evidence to establish the involvement of the Petitioner accused No. 1. As staled above, on this very material, the Additional Collector of Cust....