ATTARPAL SINGH Vs. DIRECTORATE OF REVENUE INTELLIGENCE

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THIS petition under Section 482 of the Criminal Procedure Code, 1973 seeks the quashing of Complaint Case No. 77/1/1998 titled Shri N. D. Azad, Intelligence officer, Directorate of Revenue Int. , New Delhi v. Attarpal Singh and Others under Section 135 (1) (b) of the Customs Act, 1962 ( Act ) pending before the learned Metropolitan Magistrate ( MM ) in so far as it concerns the petitioner here.

(2.) THE allegation in the complaint is that two tempos when intercepted on 1st may, 1998 at about 9. 45 pm were found to be carrying goods meant to be offloaded in front of the godown-cum-residence of Shri Tejvir Singh located at Khasra no. 16, Gali No. 3, R Block, Vikas Nagar, New Delhi. One of the packages was found to contain ball bearings with markings which indicated that the goods were of foreign origin. Accused no. 2 Dhiraj Singh who was present there informed the officers that the goods had been brought there for offloading in the godown of shri Tejvir Singh on the instructions of petitioner. He could not provide any evidence to show that the goods were legally imported. The value of the ball bearings was estimated to be Rs. 39,15,200/ -. The goods were seized under a panchnama dated 2nd May 1998. Thereafter the aforementioned complaint was filed on 26th June 1998.

(3.) BY an order dated 18th April, 2001 the Commissioner of Customs, while adjudicating the show cause notice issued to the petitioner ordered the goods to be confiscated and levied a penalty of Rs. 5 lakhs on the petitioner. In an appeal filed by the petitioner, the Customs, Excise and Gold (Control) Appellate tribunal, New Delhi by its order dated 27th August, 2002 held that there was no evidence whatsoever to establish that the petitioner was involved in smuggling of the goods in question from Nepal and, therefore, he could not be penalized under Section 112 of the Act. The net result was that the petitioner stood exonerated.