TMI Blog2000 (10) TMI 757X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... th other materials and the trucks. Apart from that penalties as detailed below have been imposed upon the various persons. (a) Dasmesh Road Servlce - Rs. 10 lakhs. (b) Shri Inderpreet Singh - Rs. 5 lakhs (Sole Prop. of Dasmesh Road Service). (c) Jagpal Singh Sahauli - Rs. 5 lakhs. (d) Davinder Deep Singh - Rs. 1 lakh. (e) Jatashankar Singh - Rs. 10,000/- (f) R.N. Sharma - Rs. 10,000/- (g) P.S. Saral - Rs. 10,000/-. All the appeals are being disposed of by a common order as they arise out of the same set of facts and circumstances. 2. Briefly stated the facts of the case are that on or about 31-10-1997, the officers of the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence detained one truck No. AMU 6371 cont ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ade it clear that nobody claimed the ownership of the ball bearings in question. On being querried as to whether the names of the persons who booked the consignment in the trucks belonging to the appellant have been disclosed by them Dr. Chakraborty submits that they have no connection with the seized ball bearings and they were referring to the legal character of the same only to show that the appellants, as transporters or as employees of the transporters were in no way concerned with transportation of the illegal ball bearings. Accordingly Dr. Chakraborty submitted that he is not in any way connected with the ball bearings and is not interested in the release of the same but would confine his arguments as against imposition of personal p ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ve rendered the subject goods liable to confiscation under Section 111 of the said Act. There is absolutely no material on record to establish that the appellant had acquired possession and was in any way concerned in carrying, removing, depositing, harbouring, keeping, concealing or purchasing in any manner or dealing with any goods and knew or had reason to believe was liable to confiscation. Similar contentions were raised on behalf of Ranjit Singh and it was contended that penalty cannot be imposed on basis of hearsay evidence unsupported by documents on record and not corroborated. As regards Davinder Deep Singh Dr. Chakraborty argued that merely because the appellant is the registered owner of the vehicle number plate-AMU 6371 he cann ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... he alleged pilferage of the ball bearings. Similarly statement of Jagrup Singh which is to the effect that R.N. Sharma visited him in the Presidency jail and obtained his signature on a blank sheet cannot in no way link the appellant with the seized ball bearings. As such he prays for setting aside the imposition of penalty upon him by referring to the various case laws. 10. Shri B. Saha, ld. Adv. appears on behalf of Shri Jatashankar Singh, who he submits is the owner of the godown at Howrah from where ball bearings of foreign origin have been recovered. Referring to the statement of Shri Jatashankar Singh, Shri Saha submits that he has simply rented his godown and allowed bearings to be stored in his godown at the instance of a person k ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... d into India or the same were deflected, being Nepal bound cargo we find that the Commissioner in his impugned order has not brought on record affirmative and positive evidence to show the involvement of the appellants in the transportation of the same with knowledge that the goods in question were liable to confiscation. Similarly we find force in the appellants submission that a separate penalty on Inderpreet Singh being sole Prop. of M/s. Dasmesh Road Service was not warranted. Similarly Jagpal Singh Sahauli is father of Shri Inderpreet Singh and a separate penalty of Rs. 5 lakhs upon him was not justified. Shri R.N. Sharma is only Manager of M/s. Dasmesh Road Service and the other persons are either the godown owners or the drivers of ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
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