TMI Blog1998 (11) TMI 269X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... for stay. He and Jatin Jhaveri drove to the airport in his car and after dropping him in the airport departure hall, Jhaveri left him. 2. Jitendra Dodia confirmed to the Customs officers that he was working with Jatin Jhaveri; that he and Jatin Jhaveri packed the U.S. dollars in bundles in the evening. He gave further details which will be referred to. Jatin Jhaveri was not available till 27-9-1993. In his statement recorded a couple of days later, he confirmed the fact of his accompanying Ajit Dodia to Hong Kong on the 27/28-7-1993. In his statements, spread over the next few days, he said that on 27-7-1993 evening he had handed over his suit case having combination lock to Ajit Dodia to hand it over to his (Jhaveri s) brother at Hong Kong. Foreign currency recovered from the baggage of Ajit Dodia did not belong to him. The suit case which formed part of Ajit Dodia s baggage belonged to him but not the brief case which he did not give to him. Further statements were recorded in the course of investigation of these three persons. Notices were issued proposing confiscation of the currency for being sought to be unauthorisedly exported under Clauses (d), (e) and (i) of Section 113 ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... He ordered confiscation of the currency absolutely and imposed penalties on all the three. 5. We shall first consider the confiscation of currency. None of the appellant has claimed ownership of U.S. $ 1,14,300/- found in the black brief case. It is not disputed that it was sought to be exported. We therefore confirm its confiscation under Clauses (d) and (i) of Section 113 for the reason that it was not declared. 6.Jatin Jhaveri has produced before the Commissioner copies of two currency declaration forms one dated 25-6-1994 for U.S. $ 2,54,000/- and other dated 28-6-1993 for U.S. $ 35,250/-. These indicate the same to have been issued on these dates to him for the amounts in question. The Commissioner in his order does not deny that these two forms had been issued. On the contrary, he refers to these documents produced before him at the hearing and mentions what seems to be changes in the dates from 26-6-1993 to 25-6-1993 and some discrepancy in the passport number. He however does not find that this discrepancy leads to the view that the currency declaration forms were not issued. He emphasises the suspicious behaviour of Jatin Jhaveri and his flight from the investigation, ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ad taken one brief case belonging to him and suit case belonging to Jatin bhai suggesting that the contents of the suit case, or part thereof belonging to Jatin Jhaveri but not the contents of the brief case. Jatin Dodia, in his statement dated 12-10-1993 confirms this statement when he says that his brother Ajit Dodia had with him when he went to the airport on 27-7-1993 one suitcase of Jatin bhai and one our briefcase. Jitendra Dodia also says in his statement of 28-7-1993 that the currency which was given by my sheth and packed by us were containing American dollars. My sheth informed that it was legal accounted money." In his subsequent statement of 28-7-1993 he refers to Jatin Jhaveri telling him before he dropped at Andheri station on 27-7-1993. He forgotten to give receipt. These statements have not been retracted or contradicted. It is difficult to conclude from this that Jatin Jhaveri was the owner of this currency. That would be contradicting to the statements of Jitendra Dodia; that Jatin Jhaveri told the two brothers that the currency being packed in the suit case was legal currency and contrary to the reference made by him to the receipt. It is reasonable to conclu ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... veri on 3, 6, 7 and 12th October, 1993. In Para 13 of his last statement, he says on being asked , that he knows Chandrasen Jhaveri for the last 15 or 16 years and says that he was dealing with diamond jewellery, travel agency, film finance. In the earlier Para 10 he states that he has already paid his ticket from M/s. Atlantic Pacific Pvt. Ltd. run by Chandrasen Jhaveri. It is intriguing that the officers seems to have asked and recorded answers unrelated to the line of enquiry being pursued. 13. If we now look at Ajit Dodia s claim that the currency was given to him by Chandrasen Jhaveri it assumes a certain significance. 14. While these facts strongly suggest the involvement of Chandrasen Jhaveri, there is nothing specifically to implicate him. In any event, the department whose not to enquire into this role and no notice has been issued to him. However, they raise to corroborate the claim of Jatin Jhaveri that he was not the owner of this currency or that he knew about it. 15. Ajit Dodia becomes liable to penalty under Section 114 of the Act. The fact remains that he checked the currency to the Customs. Even if he believed that his possession and carriage was not illegal ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
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