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2017 (11) TMI 309

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..... family and has established business and hence, his presence can be secured as and when required during the investigation as well as during the trial by imposing certain conditions. This Court is of the opinion that discretion is required to be exercised in favour of the applicant for grant of bail. Moreover, the applicant assures that he will abide by the terms and conditions that may be imposed by the Court and shall not commit any breach. Hence, the application is allowed and the applicant is ordered to be released on regular bail on executing a personal bond of ₹ 10,000/- with one surety of the like amount to the satisfaction of the trial Court and subject to the conditions imposed - application allowed. - Criminal Misc.Application (For Regular Bail) NO. 25939 of 2017 - - - Dated:- 2-11-2017 - MR. P. P. BHATT, J. For The Applicant : Mr Chetan K Pandya, Advocate For The Respondent : Mr Mitesh Amin, Advocate ORAL ORDER 1. This application is filed by the applicant under Section 439 of the Criminal Procedure Code, 1973 (for brevity, 'the Code') for regular bail in connection with the File No. DRI/AZU/SRU/B/INV-04 (ENQ- 21/2017 of the Dir .....

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..... in the instant case the goods in question are valued at ₹ 1.07 crore and hence, this is a borderline case. He further submitted that the said amount of ₹ 1.07 crore is also questionable and it may go down. The learned advocate for the applicant, with all vehemence, submitted that for arriving at such an evaluation of the goods, the department has not provided any calculation. It is further submitted by him that the investigating agency has not sought remand of the applicant so far. It is also submitted that the applicant was arrested on 27.09.2017 and he is in custody since then i.e. for about 40 days. It is also submitted that further custodial interrogation may not require as substantial part of the investigation is over and necessary documents have also been collected. 3.3 The learned advocate for the applicant further submitted that the applicant is the resident of Surat town and has roots in Surat and is also having established business and therefore, he is not likely to flee away and his presence can be secured at any time for further investigation as well as during the trial by imposing appropriate conditions as may be deemed fit and proper by this Court. .....

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..... licant had camouflaged the Chinese Firecrackers with the Party Popper . Learned counsel Mr. Amin further submitted that the father of the applicant has filed the affidavit regarding second consignment but the said affidavit is also contrary to the real factual position. 4.2 It is further submitted that the statement of the applicant was recorded on 26.09.2017 and further interrogation is yet to be made in respect of the mobile numbers given by him. It is submitted that one mobile number of China is given but another mobile number is not given by the applicant during the interrogation. He submitted that the CDRs of those mobile numbers are yet to be collected. Learned counsel Mr. Amin, while referring the copy of letter dated 22.09.2017, annexed to the affidavit-in-reply (page 58) submitted that even the office of the Income Tax has also raised the Demand Notice against the present applicant. 4.3 The learned counsel for the respondent No. 2 department also submitted that the decisions relied by the learned advocate for the applicant are not applicable to the present case as the facts and circumstances involved in the those case are different then the present one. 4.4 Lea .....

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..... .2017 at Raigad during examination of containers at 11:00 hours along with import documents viz. Commercial Invoice, Packing List, Bill of Lading etc. and in that context, the father of the applicant has filed the affidavit inter-alia stating that they are not the import of the said container, so they do not have any document for the same and they have nothing to do with the said container. The affidavit dated 24.10.2017 along with covering letter dated 25.10.2017 addressed to the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence, Regional Unit, Surat with copy thereof marked to the Commissioner (Imports), Nhava Sheva, Tal.: Uran, Dist.: Raigad (Maharashtra) were received by the Directorate on 25.10.2017 and to that effect seal is also affixed on the original copy. 5.2 The learned advocate applicant also referred and relied upon the guidelines issued in respect of the arrest and prosecution provided under Chapter Eleven in the Customs Preventive Manual (Central), Volume II (Intelligence), more particularly, following provisions: Chapter XVI of the Customs Act deals with offences and prosecution. Offences under Section 132 to 136 triable by Courts. By virtue of Sec. 137 of the Act .....

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..... e envisaged certain requirements to be followed in all cases of arrest or detention. In line with said requirements, following preventive measures should be followed in all cases of detention or/and arrest. ( 1) The officer carrying out the arrest shall prepare an 'Arrest Memo' at the time of arrest and the same shall be attested by atleast one witness. The witness may be either member of the family of arrestee or respectable person of the locality. The 'Arrest Memo' shall also be countersigned by the arrestee with date and time. ( 2) The person who has been detained or arrested should be allowed to inform one friend or relative or other person known to him or having interest in his welfare, as soon as practicable, unless the attesting witness of the 'Arrest Memo' is himself [such friend or relative of the arrestee, about his arrest and place where he is kept. ( 3) The time, place of arest and venue of the custody of an arrestee must be notified, where his friend or relative lives outside district or town through the Legal Aid Organization in the District telegraphically within a period of 8 to 12 hours after the arrest. ( 4) Th .....

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..... rogation should bear accurate, visible and clear identification of name and designation. 5.3 The learned advocate for the applicant then, by referring the Notice to Show-cause dated 07.02.2011 submitted that it was issued to M/s. R.G. International and M/s. Joule International. While referring internal page 5 of the said notice, the learned advocate for the applicant submitted that the firm was opened in the name of the applicant in the name of M/s. R.G. International and it was mutually agreed between the applicant and one Mr. Jayesh (Mamrawala) that they would be importing goods such as embroidery machines, sequence films, PET Films, yarn embroidery machine spare parts, dies etc. in the name of M/s. R. G. International and trading the same in the local market. That the applicant would look after the marketing part and Mr. Jayesh (Mamrawala) would look after the work relating to correspondence with the overseas suppliers, rate negotiations etc. and that, they would be sharing profits between them equally. Referring this part of the notice, the learned advocate for the applicant submitted that the investigation agency is not fair qua the present applicant as Mr. Jayesh Mamr .....

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..... mstances of the case and the nature and gravity of accusation made against the applicant and other papers placed on record as well as the decisions relied by the learned advocate for the applicant and the aforesaid parameters laid down by the Hon'ble Apex Court for considering the matters relating to grant of bail. Firstly, indisputably, the charge-sheet in the matter is yet to be filed and the investigation is in progress, however, it is also not in dispute that the substantial part of the investigation is over. Moreover, the custodial interrogation of the applicant also appears to have been over as the applicant is in custody since his arrest i.e. 27/09/2017, for almost for 40 days. 8.1 The next thing which weighed with the Court is, the offence is triable by the Magistrate Court and the maximum punishment prescribed under the Act is up to seven years. Besides, from the material placed on record, prima facie, there appears nothing on record to show that as to how, the department has arrived at such a figure, to be precise, the valuation of ₹ 1.07 crore. If the submission made by the learned advocate for the applicant is considered, it is a borderline case and the .....

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