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2011 (1) TMI 297 - AT - CustomsSmuggling racket - Search and seizure - Illegally imported – Penalty on Revenue officers - Print-outs of telephone calls made by various noticees amongst each other was held to be reliable evidence by impugned order - The details contained in the print-outs did not disclose the conversations amongst the smuggling racket - Regularity and frequency of calls with customs officers by the smuggling racket proved the modus operandi of the racket. Frequent contacts by and with Air Customs Officers on regular basis, especially with the officers on duty brought them to charge of connivance and abetment who made the smuggling successful - here was no recording of conversation made by the appellant to different offending cell phones reason of such contacts remained questionable and not satisfactorily explained - Even the appellant’s pleading about the contact with the informers appears to be baseless. In the course of hearing no evidence were led to demonstrate that all the trader appellants were strangers to the proceeding - Rather, they established their intimacy with the smuggling racket and proved their deal in the smuggled goods - Statement recorded from them as well as smuggling racket unmistakably disclosed their identity and destination of the offending goods arrived at the IGI Airport and cleared making evasion of customs duty - Other than the arguments, no logical reasons could be shown to us to infer dissociation of the trader appellants from the charge - When the proof of transport of the offending goods established destination thereof and disposal of the offending goods by trader appellant there remained no doubt to bring these appellants to charge –Penalty on revenue officers confirmed - Thus all their appeals being devoid of merit are dismissed.
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