BALASUBRAMANIAN Vs. STATE

JUDGEMENT

(1.) On 04/08/1992, the Special Crime Branch of C.B.I registered the F.I.R against 6 persons on the complaint received from the Additional Collector of Customs, Chennai, reporting unauthorised export of goods on forged documents which has come to the notice during the course of correlation of shipping bills with export manifest. Three shipping bills dtd. 06/12/1991, 09/12/1991 and 16/12/1991 raised in the name of M/s.Ganesh Traders, Chennai were not genuine and it did not contain the signatures of the Officers working in the Export Department of the Customs House, Chennai. The shipping bills are forged in all aspects since the bills were not admitted for examination by the Export Group and were not assessed by assessors.

(2.) On completion of investigation, C.B.I recommended for launching prosecution against the accused persons. Accordingly, in exercise of power under Sec. 137 (1) of the Customs Act, 1962, the Commissioner of Customs accorded sanction to prosecute Balasubramanian (A-1) and Nandagopal (A-2) for their act of forgery and cheating punishable under Sec. 120-B, 420, 467, 468, 471 I.P.C and Sec. 135 of Customs Act, 1962 and Rule 14 of Exports Control Order r/w Sec. 5 of IMPEX Act.

(3.) The complaint by the Assistant Commissioner of Customs was taken cognizance by the Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate, Egmore in E.O.C.C.No.169/1997. After appreciating the oral evidence of P.W-1 to P.W-21 and the documents marked as Ex.P-1 to Ex.P-35, the trial Court held A-1 and A-2 guilty of offences under Sec. 120-B r/w 420, 467,468 and 471 r/w 468 I.P.C and Rule 14 of the Export Control Order r/w Sec. 5 of Imports and Exports (Control) Act. The trial Court in E.O.C.C.No.169/1997, sentenced each of the accused to undergo 2 years R.I and fine of Rs.1,000.00 in default 2 months R.I for each of the charges (6 in numbers). The period of imprisonment was ordered to run concurrently.