(1.) Vide order of 17th December, 2013 trial court has granted bail to respondent-accused persons in a case under Section 135 of the Customs Act, 1962 wherein 18 kgs of gold bars were recovered from the vehicle in which respondent-accused persons were found to be travelling and the total market value of the recovered gold bars is said to be more than five crores and the total evaded custom duty payable is said to be '1.63 crores.
(2.) Learned counsel for petitioner submits that magnitude of the offence in question is such which disentitles respondent-accused persons to grant of bail within 25 days of being in custody.
(3.) At the hearing, reliance was placed by learned counsel for petitioner upon decisions in Lalit Goel v. Commissioner of Central Excise, 2007 216 ELT 673, Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy v. Central Bureau of Investigation in Crl.A. No.730 of 2013 rendered on 9th May, 2013, Rajesh Goyal v. UOI, 2011 3 RajLW 1968, Hasan Ali v. UOI in Crl.A. No.1883 of 2011 rendered on 30th September, 2011 by Apex Court and K.I. Pavunny v. Assistant Collector, 1997 3 SCC 721 to contend that in cases of white collared crime, like the instant one, grant of bail ought to be an exception particularly when the investigation is still pending and the retracted confession of respondent-accused persons is true and can be made the basis to convict respondent-accused persons for the offence in question, which entails punishment upto seven years.