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2014 (5) TMI 784 - HC - FEMAContravention of Sections 8(1) and 8(2) of the Foreign Exchange Regulation Act’ 1973 - Penalty - recovery and seizure of Indian currency - No opportunity for cross examination granted - Held that:- there was miscarriage of justice in denying the request of the Appellants for cross-examination of the ED officials. Allowing the request would have enabled the SD to determine whether the claim that the confessional statements were recorded under threat and coercion was credible - Although the mere discharge of the Appellants in the criminal proceedings will not ipso facto result in their being exonerated in the adjudication proceedings’ it is significant that even in the criminal proceedings the ED was unable to prove the so-called confessional statements of the Appellants under Section 40 FERA in accordance with law. A perusal of the original records shows that only the photocopies of the loose handwritten sheets are available. The originals of the Section 40 statements have not been marked as exhibits by examining the persons who recorded them. The AT also erred in proceeding on the basis that the failure to supply English translations of the seized documents was not violative of natural justice since the author of the documents was Prem Singh. The writings on the loose sheets were in Gurmukhi and not Pushto as thought by the ED during the adjudication proceedings. If reliance was going to be placed on the said loose sheets’ then surely they ought to have been translated if they had to corroborate the retracted statements of Prem Singh and Tarlochan Singh - Order set aside - Decided in favour of appellant.
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