B.P. NAYAK, Vs. COMMISSIONER OF CUSTOMS (PREV.)

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THE facts leading to these appeals are, briefly, as follows:

(2.) ON an information received by them, the officers of Directorate of Revenue Intelligence identified and picked up on 21st February 1995, five persons from the Nariman Point branch of the Syndicate Bank, Mumbai. These five persons Sayyed Munawar, Khan Imtiaz Murtuza, Mohammed Ibrahim Basheer, Hussein Shaikh Abubakar and Zakir Hussein Rehmatullah, were carrying four sacks. Zakir Hussein told the officers that the two sacks with him contained Rs. 50.78 lakhs which had been withdrawn by him from the current account of Acrobond Exports. Sayyed Munawar said that the two sacks with him contained Rs. 50 lakhs, which he had brought from shop No. 27 in Manish Market. The shop belongs to Mustafa Majnoo Iqbal, and Hussein. He said that the money was the sale proceeds of various types of smuggled goods. Officers seized the currency under the belief that it was the sale proceeds of smuggled goods.

(3.) THE resulting investigations brought to light the following facts. Rs. 92,28,625 debited to the current account of Acrobond Exports and Hitesh Exports was in the pay order account of Syndicate Bank. Nahalchand Lallochand, Nucleas Securities Ltd. and Wall Street Finance Limited. These were the moneychangers authorised by the Reserve Bank of India and had delivered foreign exchange in return for the pay order issued by Acrobond and Hitesh Exports. Rs. 25,36,000 debited to the account of Vijaya Agencies was in the pay order account of Moulana Azad Road Branch of Bombay Mercantile Cooperative Bank. Rs. 6.34 lakhs out of this account was paid to Trade Wings Limited, another moneychanger, who had issued foreign exchange in return. Pay order for Rs. 19.02 lakhs had been issued to Nucleas Securities Limited but foreign exchange had not been issued in return. The officers issued instructions to bank stop payment of these amounts and also to block the various accounts in these banks.