State Tr.Insp.Of Police vs A.Arun Kumar & Anr

2. On 08.02.2007 RC-1/E/2007-CBI/EOW/CHENNAI was registered under sections 120B read with section 420, 467, 468, 471 IPC and 477-A IPC and section 13 (2) read with section 13(1)(d) of The Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988 (POC Act for short) and section 32 of the Customs Act, 1962 on the allegations that accused nos. 1-3 named therein had entered into a criminal conspiracy with accused no.4 who was Appraiser of Customs, Inland Container Depot (ICD), Irugur, Coimbatore and with accused no.5, Inspector of Customs, Inland Container Depot, Irugur, Coimbatore during 2004-2005 and in pursuance of said conspiracy had filed false and fabricated documents to claim duty draw back to the tune of Rs.2.14 crores (approximately) from ICD, Irugur. It was alleged that said accused nos.1-3 had filed certain Shipping Bills and that the export documents were assessed by accused no.4 i.e. respondent no.1 and after such assessment the goods were examined by accused no.5 i.e. respondent No.2. After completion of the customs formalities the goods were stuffed in containers which were sealed and transported to Cochin for consignment to Dubai. It was alleged that accused no.1 produced different sets of forged shipping bills by adding a digit before the total quantity of shipment thereby inflating the value of shipment and fraudulently claimed duty draw back. These forged shipping bills were endorsed by the respondents. A chart was relied upon to show how the total quantity and the present market value differed by addition of a digit. The chart was as follows:

3. A regular case was registered on the allegations as aforesaid and investigation was conducted by CBI which later filed charge sheet against said five accused on 28.04.2008. The allegations against respondent nos. 1 & 2 were:

4 Arun Kumar who allowed the export of less quantity and entered inflated quantity in the Shipping Bills Register in conspiracy with A-5 Santhosh Kumar, STA and also filed wrong GR Forms to RBI. But before the duty draw back was allowed, the process was stopped by the intervention of the Directorate General of Central Excise Intelligence and the accused persons removed/destroyed the documents available with them and tried to replace the documents with the actual export documents by reconstruction process. While the actual exports was only worth Rs.3.22 crores, with eligible duty draw back of Rs.35,000/- by forging the Shipping Bills, GR Forms and Shipping Bills Register, the accused persons attempted to claim inflated duty draw back of Rs.2.5 crores on inflated export of Rs.22.72 crores and thereby attempted to cheat the Government of India."

10. In our view the instant case calls for interference by this Court. We, therefore, set aside the judgment and order passed by the High Court and restore the order of the Special Court. The respondents thus continue to stand charged and must consequently face the trial. However, it must be recorded that this Court has considered the matter only from the stand point whether the respondents be discharged or not and we shall not be taken to have expressed any opinion on merits. The matter shall and must be dealt with purely on merits by the concerned court.

11. We allow this appeal in the aforesaid terms.