BOMBAY BANGALORE FREIGH Vs. CC, NEW DELHI

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THESE two appeals have been filed by the appellants against the common order in original dated 31.8.2000 passed by the Commissioner of Customs vide which he had ordered the confiscation of the goods and imposed penalty of Rs.5 lakhs each on them, besides imposing penalty of Rs.5 lakhs on consignors/consignees of the goods also.

(2.) THE facts giving rise to these appeals may briefly be stated as under:

(3.) ON 8.3.99 acting on specific information the officers of the Headquarter of Preventive Branch of the New Custom House searched the office -cum -godown of the company M/s. Bombay Bangalore Freight Carrier Ltd. [hereinafter referred to as company(appellant no.1) in the presence of their Manager, Ashwani Kumar(appellant no.2) which resulted in the recovery of bearings of foreign origin valued at Rs.36,74,000/ -. On demand Ashwani Kumar (appellant no.2) produced GRs and invoices accompanying the goods. In those documents the names of the consignors and consignees were recorded which had been detailed in para 2 of the impugned order. Thereafter, efforts were made to contact those persons but their addresses were found to be incomplete and fictitious. Ashwani Kumar (appellant no.2) could not produce any document showing legal import/acquisition of the recovered goods of foreign origin and as such the same were seized under Section 110 of the Customs Act on the reasonable belief that these had been imported into India in violation of the provisions of the Act and were liable to be confiscated. The statement of Ashwani Kumar(appellant no.2) was also recorded who admitted the recovery of the goods (bearings) of foreign origin from the godown of the company(appellant no.1). He also admitted that he was not in possession of any document about the legal import of the seized goods. He, however, stated that the job of his company was to transport the goods from Mumbai to Delhi and vice versa and that he did not possess the complete address of the consignors/consignees of the goods seized.