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TMI Blog2008 (5) TMI 489X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... actory was visited by the Central Excise officers on 3/4-10-02, who conducted various checks and verifications. The officers recovered certain records maintained by the appellant under the cover of Panchnama and in the presence of appellant's representative and independent witnesses. As per one lot register maintained by the appellant, it was seen that the details of fabrics entered there in, were not recorded in the statutory record. On being questioned, Shri Rajendra Prasad R. Agarwal, Director of the Company, in his statement recorded on 4-10-2002 and 20-11-2003 admitted having cleared the said goods without payment of duty and deposed that the said register was being maintained by his printing master Shri I.M. Thakur, who had left the c ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... rds the merit, the learned advocate Shri Devan Parikh has strongly contended that the entire case of the Revenue is based upon the statement of the Director, without any other corroborative evidence. The lot register recovered from the premises bear letter 'W' which is not their lot number in as much as they used the letter 'K' for the goods processed by them. Even the Revenue officers did not find any goods, either raw material or finished goods, with the lot number 'W'. As such, the said register does not belong to them and no further investigation stand conducted by the Department. The learned advocate also contended that neither any shortage nor any excess was found by the officers at the time of search of their factory. Reliance stand ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... less there is a corroborative independent evidence on record. Similarly, statement made by the Director does not stand corroborated in any material particular from any other independent source. The gist of all the decisions relied upon by the learned advocate is to the effect that the allegations of clandestine removal are required to be established beyond doubt, by production of positive, tangible and independent corroborative evidence and such findings should not be arrived at on the basis of assumptions and presumptions. As we have already observed that inspite of the availability of names and addresses of the buyers, the officers have not bothered to conduct investigations at their end, so as to establish the Revenue's case, we are of t ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
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