TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
2025 (11) TMI 537
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....g materials such as cardboard boxes, trolley bags etc. under Section 118 and 119 of the Customs Act, 1962. (iii) I hereby confirm the demand of duties of Customs amounting to Rs. 4,53,14,714/- (Rs. Four Crore fifty three lakhs fourteen thousand seven hundred fourteen only), under Section 28 of the Customs Act, 1962, along with applicable interest under Section 28AA of the Customs Act, 1962, and order to recover the same from M/s Raj Jewellers. (iv) I impose penalty of Rs.4,53,14,714/- (Rs. Four Crore fifty three lakhs fourteen thousand seven hundred fourteen only) on M/s Raj Jewellers, under Section 114A of the Customs Act, 1962. (v) I impose penalty of Rs.3,00,00,000/- (Rs. Three Crores Only) on M/s Raj Jewellers, under Section 114AA of the Customs Act, 1962. (vi) Since penalties have been imposed upon M/s Raj Jewellers, I refrain from imposing penalty, invoked under Section 112, 114, 114A and 114AA in the S.C.N., on Sh. Ashok Kumar Verma, the sole proprietor of M/s Raj Jewellers. (vii) I impose penalty of Rs. 45,00,000/-. (Rs. Forty five lakhs Only) on Sh. Ajit Singh, S/o Sh. Chander Bhan under Section 112 of the Customs Act, 1962. ....
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.... Airlines Flight to Dubai. Intelligence indicated that the said gold jewellery sought to be hand carried was intended to be diverted to a domestic passenger Shri Ajit Singh travelling from Air India Flight after getting endorsement of export on the export documents from the Customs at IGI Airport. 2.2 On the basis of the above intelligence DRI Officers reached IGR Airport along with two independent noticees at about 1600 hrs on 30.05.2017. Shri Ajit Sing was intercepted and on search of his personal belongings and black color trolley bag bearing brand name 'DELSEY', tree white colour card-board boxes including one which was tape-sealed using silver coloured adhesive tape; all containing assorted gold jewellery of different size and shapes kept in total 13 tranparent polythene packs were recovered. 2.3 Shri Ashok Kumar Verma was also intercepted and he was also carrying one black color trolley bag bearing brand name 'DELSEY'. On search of said bag, only his personal belongings were found and no gold jewellery was found. Further, on personal search of Shri Ashok Kumar Verma resulting in recovery of following items:- * Shipping Bill No. 0008872 respect dated 28.05.2017 ....
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.... (i) Gold Bullion having marking 'MWG UAE 1 KILO GOLD 995.0 MWG MELTER ASSAYER M012025, On the back side marking as "Motiwala Gold & Precious Stones Industry FZC, Bar Number M12025', Gold Gross weight in Grams -1000, Gold Fine Weight in Grams: 995.0'; (ii) Gold Bulion having marking 'MWG UAE 1 KILO GOLD 995.0 MWG MELTER ASSAYER M012026'. On the back side marking as "Motiwala Gold & Precious Stones Industry FZC, Bar Number M12026', Gold Gross weight in Grams-1000, Gold Fine Weight in Grams: 995.0'; (iii) Gold Bullion having marking 'Premier 1 KILO GOLD 995.0 PGR MELTER ASSAYER B007621', On the back side marking as "Premier Gold Refinery, Bar Number B007621', Weight in Grams 1000, Fine Weight-in-Grams: 995.0, Type-Gold". 2.7 Searches were also conducted at the premises of other jewelers, who have been made part of the entire investigation. Further, investigations were carried out and on the basis of evidences on record, the modus operandi adopted by Sh. Ajit Singh, Sh. Nishant Shokeen, Director of Mis Shokeen Jewellers Pvt. Ltd. and Shri Ashok Kumar Verma, Prop. of M/s Raj Jewellers, SEZ, Noida, to execute the conspi....
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....pective voluntary statements. Besides Sh. Toofan Chandra Pradhan, no other contractor was hired for manufacturing of gold jewellery in the said firm and this facts had also been accepted by concerned individuals in their respective statements. (vii) Out of total quantity of 94 kgs of imported gold, only 55 kg of imported gold was issued to Sh. Toofan Chandra Pradhan, for manufacturing of gold jewellery at the factory premises of M/s Raj Jewellers, and 3 kgs of gold was seized from the factory premises of M/s Raj Jewellers.Sh. Toofan Chandra Pradhan and Sh. Naresh Kumar Rana had accepted the fact relating to issuance of only 55 kg. of imported gold for the purpose of manufacturing of gold jewllery at the factory premises. Whereas from the above it appears that 36 kgs of imported gold was not utilized for manufacturing of gold jewellery and the said imported gold was either diverted to Mis Shokeen Jewellers Pvt. Ltd. or was sold in the domestic market. (viii) Shri Ajit Singh was Intercepted on 30.5.2017 at the IGI, Airport before he was about to board his flight to Mumbai and search of his baggage resulted in recovery of 13323.78 grams of gold jewellery. Shri Ajit S....
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....t from Delhi IGI Airport to Mumbai on the same dates when Shri Ashok Kumar Verma was carrying the export consignment of M/s Raj Jewellers to Dubai in his baggage and the timing of their flights i.e timing of domestic flight of Shri Ajit Singh to Mumbai and international flight of Shri Ashok Kumar Verma to Dubai were almost same (hardly 5 to 10 minutes difference in the departure time). Further on scrutiny of the import documents vis-a-vis issuance of gold to Shri Toofan Chandra Pradhan vis-a-vis export documents, it appears that gold jewellery being shown as exported to Dubai based companies on previous occasions was also diverted in the same manner. From the evidences brought on record and discussed aboye, it also appears that only 55 kg of gold was issued for manufacturing of gold jewellery. Therefore, it appears that once the export consignment was diverted, it was either again used as next export shipment (by adding or deleting some gold articles from the consignment) by M/s Raj Jewellers or was diverted to M/s Shokeen Jewellers Pvt. Ltd. (xii) As per the Appraisement Report dated 12.06.2017 vis-a-vis examination of gold jewellery by Sh. Toofan Chandra Pradhan in respe....
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....ts) were handed over by him to Sh. Naresh Kumar Rana, Manager of M/s Raj Jewellers at the down stairs (ground floor of the premises). (xvi) On the basis of analysis of documents and evidences brought on record, a total quantity of 9.769 kg of gold jewellery and 3 kg of gold bullion was seized from the premises of M/s Raj Jewellers. As per documents of M/s Raj Jewellers, it appears that the gold jewellery seized from the premises of M/s Raj Jewellers was manufactured from the gold imported (12 kg FOC) by the said firm vide B.E. No. 4340 dated 24.05.2017. However, as per statement of Sh. Naresh Kumar Rana, the said 12 kg of gold was received by him from the CWC warehouse on 24.05.2017 and out of the said 12 kg. gold, only 7 kg of gold was issued by him to the contractor, Sh Toofan on 24.5.2017. Rest of the gold i.e. 5 kg. imported vide B.E. No. 4340 dated 24.5.2017 was kept by him in the safe of M/s Raj Jewellers and the keys of the safe were handed over by him to Sh. Nishant Shokeen. For issuance of gold, Sh Naresh Rana maintained a private record in the form of a slip and took signature of the contractor for issuance of gold on this slip. As per the slip recovered from his....
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.... (xv) It appears that M/s Raj Jewellers, SEZ, Noida has misused and persistently contravened the terms and conditions or its obligations as prescribed under the provisions of SEZ Act / Rules, Customs Act, 1962, and other exemptions granted to the SEZ unit. It also appears that the said firm was issued an LOP by the Olo the Development Commissioner, NSEZ, Noida, with certain terms and conditions for carrying out firm's operation at the SEZ. However, on the basis of the evidences brought on record, it appears that the said firm, M/s Raj Jewellers neither followed the rules and regulations as prescribed under SEZ Act and rules thereunder nor fulfill the terms and conditions of the LOA issued to them. Therefore, DRI vide letter No. DRI/HQ-GV338NVENQ-2/INT-NILI2017 dated 28.09.2017 has requested the Development Commissioner, Noida SEZ for cancellation of the Letter of Approval/Letter of Permission/License granted to M/s Raj Jewellers, SDF Block D, 7B, NSEZ, Noida, U.P. (xvi) From the evidences brought on record and discussed above, on the basis of analysis made and various statements tendered by the concerned persons under the provisions of the Customs Act, 1962, it appear....
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....ties as described in the above paras under Section 112 (a), 114, 114A and 114AA of the Customs Act, 1962. 2.92 Now, therefore, M/s Shokeen Jewellers Pvt. Ltd. through Sh. Nishant Shokeen, Director of the firm M/s Shokeen Jewellers Pvt. Ltd., 2127-28/58, IIIrd Floor, Naiwala, Gurudwara Road, Karol Bagh, New Delhi-110005 are hereby called upon to show cause to the Principal Commissioner of Customs, NaIDA, Concor Complex, P.O. Container Depot, Greater Noida, Gautam Budh Nagar (UP)201311 as to why:: (i) the 2.519 kg. Gold jewellery valued at Rs. 67,24,503/-, recovered and seized from the office premises of M/s Shokeen Jewellers Pvt. Limited, 2127-28/58, Ilird Floor, Naiwala, Gur udwara Road, Karol Bagh, New Delhi-110005 should not be confiscated under Section 111 of the Customs Act, 1962. (ii) penalty should not be imposed upon M/s Shokeen Jewellers Pvt. Limited, 2127-28/58, Illrd Floor, Naiwala, Gurudwara Road, Karol Bagh, New Delhi-110005 for his acts of omissions and commissions in the illegal activities as described in the above paras, Section 112 (b), 114AA, of the Customs Act, 1962." 2.9 On the basis of further investigations, it appeared that Respon....
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....venue has filed these two appeals, on the following grounds:- "On examination of Order-in-Original No. 19/Pr. Commr/NOIDA-Cus/2020-21 dated 24.12.2020, the Committee of Chief Commissioners observes that the adjudicating authority has erred to the extent of: (i) not imposing penalty under Section 112(a) and 114 of the Customs Act, 1962 on Shri Naresh Kumar Rana, Manager of Mis Raj Jewellers, NSEZ, Noida for his omission and commission of aiding, abetting and helping M/s Raj Jewellers and Shri Ajit Singh and Shri Nishant Shokeen in their illegal activities, as proposed in the Show Cause Notice, and (ii) Imposing penalty under Section 114A of the Customs Act. 1962 equivalent to the duty payable without including the interest payable 5.1 The discussion and findings portion of the Order-inOriginal (Para 9.8 & Para 9.9), the role of Shri Naresh Kumar Rana in fraudulent activities has been elaborately discussed. Further, Para 9.11 of the Order-in-Original categorically states inter alia- "I find that Sh. Nishant Shokeen alongwith Sh Naresh Kumar Rana systematically connived in diversion of gold and gold jewellery of M/s Raj Jewellers a....
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....ue. None appeared on behalf of the respondents. 3.2 Learned Authorised Representative reiterates the submissions made in the appeal filed by the revenue. 4.1 We have considered the impugned orders along with the submissions made in appeal and during the course of argument. 4.2 The present appeals have been filed by revenue on the following grounds:- I. Penalties imposed under Section 114A of the Customs Act should be equivalent to the total duty and interest sought to be evaded. II. Penalties should have been imposed under Section 112A, 114 of the Customs Act, 1962 on Shri Naresh Kumar Rana voluntarily. 4.3 We find that the issue-I has been settled by the decision of this Bench in series of judgment. On such reference is made on the decision of this Tribunal in the case of M/s Vikas Globaloan Ltd. Final Order No.70150/2025 dated 12.03.2025 wherein following has been held:- "5. The Revenue has relied on the CBEC Circular No. 61/2002-CUS dated 20.09.2002 clarifying that penalty under Section 114A of the Act should be equivalent to duty and interest both and therefore, the Adjudicating Authority has erred in not imposing penalty on the interest a....