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2015 (1) TMI 1026 - HC - FEMAContravention of Sections 9(1)(b) and 9(1)(d) of FERA - penalty under Section 50 of the FERA - Held that:- Retraction of the confessional statement containing admission of wrong-doings by the appellant came after more than ten years, at the stage of personal hearing only, and not before that. Had the appellant been subjected to threat, coercion or pressure – as alleged by him rather belatedly, he would have retracted his confessional statement soon after making the same, once the alleged threat, coercion or pressure ceased to influence the action of the appellant. It is not his case that the said factors continued to influence him for 10 long years. Moreover, the appellant failed to disclose as to how he was pressurized, coerced, or tortured, and by whom, when he made the earlier confessional statement. The confessional statement was also duly corroborated by the aforesaid independent evidence viz. the list of persons to whom the monies had to be distributed, received by fax from Ubaidullah of Dubai. Thus, the plea of the appellant, founded upon his so-called highly belatedly retraction of his confessional statement, has to be rejected. Pertinently, though the appellant sought to produce bank transaction statements to show that he had been receiving monies from Ubaidullah of Dubai after the incident in question, and his consistent case is that he had been receiving monies from Ubaidullah of Dubai even earlier, he did not produce any material evidence to show that monies were earlier being received through a legal banking channel. - The appellant has been let off rather lightly considering that he had admitted to having received ₹ 13 Lakhs in all, i.e. ₹ 5 Lakhs on 16.11.1994 and ₹ 8 Lakhs in all, on two earlier occasions. The maximum fine, in these circumstances, could have been to the tune of ₹ 65 Lakhs. However, the appellant has been let off with a nominal fine of ₹ 1.5 Lakhs. - Decided against assessee.
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