Retracted confessions and uncorroborated co-noticee statements cannot sustain penalty without mandatory procedural compliance in adjudication.

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....Statements recorded under Section 108 of the Customs Act were treated as evidentiary material only if the mandatory procedure for admitting them was followed, by analogy to the Section 9D safeguard. The note records that a retracted confession, by itself, lost evidentiary value, while inconsistent co-noticee statements could not provide reliable corroboration. In the absence of independent supporting evidence and without proper procedural compliance for relying on recorded statements, the Tribunal held that the penalty could not be sustained.....