A k Banerjee : Article volume 1

A k Banerjee : Is Delhi Customs facilitating Smugglers to

roam free by not forwarding the cases to CBI relating to
fraud and huge duty evasion?
Is Delhi Customs facilitating Smugglers to roam free by not forwarding the cases to CBI
relating to fraud and huge duty evasion?

The present case relates to forgery at ICD Tughlakabad and Air Cargo unit
New Delhi by forging procurement certificate of EOU to clear the imported
goods at nil rate of duty besides no examination of the goods is being done by
the Customs. The cases of forgery involve I.P.C. violation; still the Customs
did not hand over the cases to CBI as is mandatory. Are Investigations carried
out by Customs agencies at ICD Tughlakabad and Air Cargo unit
biased/selective/incomplete and helping the real smugglers to escape?
A sustained opinion has been formed that the only sub-ordinate officers
are alone corrupt because they alone interact with the public directly. But
the fact is completely different. Majority of superior officers are most corrupt
and they play in each field because of relaxed procedure as the superior
officers know that accountability cannot be fixed upon them easily. Even in
posting and transfer of the sub-ordinate officers, they put their blue-eyed boys
in all the sensitive postings. Since the superior officers are vested with the
powers in posting and transfer, majority of the sub-ordinate officers are
generally treated shabbily.
Many a times Delhi customs claims that they have made good cases and
got deposited huge revenue in the government exchequer. However in number
of cases no doubt the department is successful for getting the duty deposited,
but it appears that action taken by the Customs is not working as a deterrent
particularly in the cases where fraud has been committed persistently.
Further the serious questions can be raised about the quality of investigation
been done in the cases. However, in number of cases for obvious reason the
investigations carried out by Customs department is so shoddy that the real
culprit/ smugglers are allowed to escape whereas to cover up the case small
fish with no fault are fixed in the case.
Corruption among the sub-ordinate officers will not be much threat for the
revenue due to the Government. However, corruption, incompetency and
favouritism among senior officers will have serious adverse effect on the
revenue due to the Government. The mentality of the Government servants

has not transformed to the desired level and they want the erstwhile controls
back for their own benefits.
It is a matter of fact that to be honest and forthright in a revenue
department appears to be an uphill task because the system has rotten
completely and huge temptation will always allure and it will be not easy
to refuse repeatedly offer of money just for the existence in the department.
Further, in most of so-called sensitive places of posting, the illegal receipt will
be for the formation or Section and even if an officer not interested in it there
will be no result. Survival of an honest officer in the Department itself is very
difficult because of the fact of corrupt system, and every body is well aware of
the prevailing practices in the Department. Consequently once considered to
be self disciplined Government employees become most corrupt as they are
not ready to think for the people of India.
The most bizarre happening in this story is the incompetency of the Customs
Investigative agency to correlate the consistent fraud that took place at ICD
Tughlakabad in 2009 and Air Cargo unit in 2010 using the same modus
operandi. The forgery was detected in Air cargo unit in 2010 and latter on in
March 2011 at ICD but the investigation took place in March 2012 at ICD.
At ICD Tughlakabad procurement certificate bearing no 101/09-10 dated
9/12/2009 was forged in respect of M/S Global Logic India Pvt Ltd allegedly
by M/S Ambika Enterprises CHA. However the CHA had a different story to
tell. CHA M/S Ambika Enterprises in his written submission to Commissioner
of Customs I& G New Delhi in response to Order no 10/NLB/policy 2012
dated 2012 denied all the allegations and averred that suspension of their
license was based on shoddy investigation which were biased in favour of
actual culprit and also mentioned that the documents submitted by him to the
reply would establish that one Prasun Jain @ Sonuji was mastermind behind
forgery of the procurement certificate clearance of goods at ICD. The CHA
M/S Ambika enterprises also requested for investigation by an independent
agency as the matter involved Customs offence and forgery. The CHA also
lodged a police complaint and to the CBI. In his statement to SIIB ICD
Prasun Jain stated that he did not give any authorization or any documents
for filing B/E no 856627 dated 14/12/2009 to the CHA M/S Ambika
Enterprises.
At Air cargo unit New Delhi SIIB of I&G Commissionerate detected a case of
forgery wherein procurement certificate of M/S Rajdhani Crafts Jaipur was
forged to clear the imported goods without payment of Customs duty. One
Prasun Jain was arrested by SIIB I&G and was later on granted bail by the
court of ACMM New Delhi.

Most interesting aspect of the entire episode is that neither Commissioner of

Customs ICD nor I&G recommended the case to CBI .Why?
Had the Customs department been following its procedure to verify receipts of
re-ware housing certificate from the concerned Central Excise range, fraud
could have been detected much earlier. Contributory negligence of the
department has led to loss of Revenue, Had the fraud been detected timely
under the required procedure, loss of evidences by way recognition of persons,
who got the examination of the goods carried out, who engaged the transport
of goods after clearance from Customs, who interacted with the Shipping lines
.who made the payments for transport of goods to the transporters would not
have occurred.
RTT has received large numbers of documents on the condition of anonymity
relating to a case of forgery involving IPC violation and huge duty evasion of
Rs 67 lacs at Air Cargo Unit New Delhi. It so happened that SIIB of Import
and general Commissionarate New Delhi intercepted an import consignment
under bill of entry no 168385 dt 16/11/2010 filed by Rajender P Kapur CHA
in the name of M/S Rajdhani Crafts Jaipur an 100% Export oriented unit.
The goods were declared as Heald frame(s/p of weaving machine) having
declared value of Rs 5, 66,862/- attracting nil rate of duty being 100% EOU
under notification no 52/2003 for BCD.
The details of the cases /Investigations carried out relating to the forgery of
procurement certificate at Air Cargo Unit New Delhi and ICD Tughlakabad
New Delhi is given below:
A show cause notice under C.No VIII/SIIB/Cus/I&G /128/2010/40950 dated
17/11/2011 was issued by the then Commissioner of Customs I&G New Delhi
and made noticee to Prashun Jain, Prashant Gupta, Biplav Kumar, Rajinder
P Kapur,Om Freight Forwarders and CMC Ltd for import of a consignment
on forged documents and evading Customs duty.
During the course of enquiry relating to forgery at Air Cargo Unit New Delhi
regarding B/E no 168385 dated 16/11/2010 one person came forward with
the gate pass of the consignment and introduced himself as M/S Prashun Jain
CHA registration no R-91/2006 and holder of F card no 162/06. Prashun Jain
then informed the officers of SIIB I&G Commissionerate New Delhi that
consignment in question has been cleared by one Biplab Kumar working in
M/S Rajender P Kapur CHA bearing registration no R-023/06 having mobile
number 9999242055 and thereafter Biplab Kumar left the cargo complex after
handing over the copy of the gate pass to him for transportation of the subject
shipment to the destination.

Prasun Jain when was asked about the contents of the shipment by the SIIB
officers ,he informed that consignment in question consisted of Micro SD
cards of 2 GB & Ram of 1GBof different speed and the goods were valued at
RS 67lacs /- and were seized under section 110 of Customs Act by the SIIB.
Further in his statement recorded under Customs Act on 19/11/2010 Prasun
Jain stated that Biplab Kumar was residing in Palam Delhi and he along with
Biplab Kumar have cleared three consignment of Micro Sim Cards and Ram
in the name of Rajdhani Crafts an 100% EOU unity and the complete address
of Rajdhani Crafts was not known to him and to his knowledge the importer
was based in Chandigarh.
Another statement of Prasun Jain was again recorded on 19/11/2010 wherein
he stated that he knew very well the Customs rules and procedures regarding
importation of goods in Cargo . He further stated in his statement that that
whenever a customer/importer comes for taking service of CHA , he first
checks the genuineness of the importer by checking his IEC code and verifies
whether the documents given to him for import is in order or not. Then he
files the papers in Customs for duty assessment and after assessment of duty,
he pays the duty provided by the importer in the bank. Prasun Jain further
stated that after that the imported goods are examined in the import shed
ACU New Delhi.
On being asked about the importer of the goods Prasun Jain stated that goods
were imported by one prashant gupta of Nehru place New Delhi . Prasun
Jain further stated that prashant gupta was introduced to him by Praiksit
sharma and Manoj Srivastava .Prasun also stated that that prashant gupta
( mobile no 9811364889, 9582747306) had promised him to pay an amount of
85000/- on clearance of the consignment and he had cleared two to three
consignments of Prashant gupta where such types of rams/ cards were
imported. Prasun Jain also corrected/changed himself by stating in his
statement that Rajdhani crafts were situated in Jaipur and not in Chandigarh.
Residence of prashant gupta was searched on 20/11/2010 and nothing
incriminating was found. During investigation it was observed that in Cargo
manifest the address of Rajdhani crafts was shown as millennium towers
Jasola disst centre New Delhi in the cargo manifest .
Prashun Jain in his statement has stated that apart from the consignment
seized by the customs, in the past they have cleared 2-3 more such shipments
adopting the same modus-operandi. This fact is corroborated by the report
received from Central Excise Jaipur wherein they have provided details of
three bills of entry nos (1) 168385 dt 16.11.10 (2) 991362 dt 13.09.10 (3) 957813
dt 13.8.10.

Sources say, It is also a fact that Prashun Jain, Prashant Gupta and Biplav
Kumar have connived and are the masterminds for the above illegal
fraudulent import by misusing IEC of M/s Rajdhani Crafts, Jaipur with the
intent to defraud exchequer. Prashun Jain was well aware of the actual
contents of the shipment. Clearance from Customs was being arranged by
Prashun Jain & Biplav Kumar and shipment was meant for Prashant Gupta.
Whereas, vide letter dated Nil, Sub-inspector of Rajasthan Police, Jaipur have
filed a complaint that someone has imported goods in the name of M/s
Rajdhani Crafts, Unit 1301-1302, Millenium Tower. Jasola Dist and Rajdhani
Crafts dont have any office / unit at the above mentioned address and
further requested office of Commissioner of I&G to supply the details/
documents of goods seized related to the case.
Summons dt 24.11.10, 29.11.10, 3.12.10, 20.12.10, were issued to Prashant
Gupta for appearance before the Customs Deptt., but he never turned up.
Therefore, a complaint against Prashant Gupta was filed in the Court of
ACMM, New Delhi for non compliance of summons. He was further issued
summons dated: 26.05.11, 21.07.11, 08.08.11, & 5.10.11, but he never turned
up and never joined the investigation. The Court of ACMM also issued him
summons dated: 07.10.11 for appearance in the court on 02.11.11, but he failed
to appear in the court. Therefore, the court has issued bailable warrants
against Prashant Gupta.
Assistant Commissioner, Central Excise. Division- Jaipur vide his letter C No
IV(16)24/S&I/OFF/2011/556 dated 18.07.11 (RUD-21) informed that as per
their office records, the goods in respect of B/E no 957813,991362 and 168385
dated 13/08/2011,12/09/2011 and 16/11/2011 respectively were never imported
and received by M/s Rajdhani Crafts, Jaipur.
Statement of Kuldeep , consolidation executive in M/S Om freight Forwarders
pvt ltd ,the freight forwarder in this case was recorded wherein he stated that
one person introduced himself as Sunil Kumar of M/S Rajdhani Crafts came
to his office for delivery order and paid an amount of RS 3111/- .Kuldeep
further stated that he gave the delivery order to the said Sunil Kumar without
any ID proofs as he promised to provide him later on and when he later tried
to talk to him mobile phone it was switched off. He also stated that he never
gave any D.O. to him earlier. It is strange that the Customs authorities did
not bother to take mobile number of Sunil Kumar from Kuldeep.
Statement of KC Dhabal, Custom clearance assistant of CHA Rajinder P
kapur was recorded on 23/11.2010 wherein he stated that he had never cleared
any cargo at ACU New Delhi and only Biplab Kumar who was working for
Rajender P Kapur for the last three or more years used to clear consignments
at ACU New Delhi.

Statement of Rajinder P Kapur proprietor of CHA Rajinder P Kapur in his

statement dated 24/11/2010 stated that Biplab Kumar was a H card holder of
the company and his card was valid up to 2008 and he asked Biplab to renew
the card but he did not renewed his card which appears to be concocted.
Kapur further admitted that that it was his duty to give Biplab a proper card.
Kapur showed his ignorance about the B/E no 168385 dated 16/11/2010
under which the fraud was committed and also stated that he knew Rajdhani
Crafts through a freight forwarder M/S Exim services but he did not know
Prashant Gupta. When a letter dated 20/10/2010 issued on the letter head of
Rajinder P Kapur addressed to Security manager DIAL IGI Airport was
shown to him regarding permission/ permanent pass in exam area to Biplab
Kumar he admitted that the signature on the letter head belongs to him.
On 24/11/2010 residence of Sunil Kumar G card holder of M/S Prasun Jain
was searched and no incriminating documents were found .Sunil Kumar
stated in his statement stated that he was working on behalf of Prasun Jain
and was getting an amount of RS 5000/- per month in cash as agency charges.
However the then Commissioner while issuing the SCN dated
17/11/2011failed to mention that Sunil Kumar mentioned his telephone no as
9868916058/9212266497 in his statement and why no efforts was made to
ascertain from him whether he is the same Sunil Kumar who took the
delivery order without submitting any Id proof and disappeared. The
department also failed to cross verification the telephone numbers mentioned
in the statement of Kuldeep of Om freight forwarders and the numbers given
by Sunil Kumar in his statement. Sunil Kumar also stated in his statement
that he earlier worked with CMC.
Statement of Mukesh Sharma, Senior Engineer, CMC, NCH, New Delhi was
recorded on 30.11.2010 wherein he stated that he has been working as Senior
Engineer in CMC Service centre, NCH since August 2008; that the procedure
of work followed by the service centre is that CHAs/Importers come to
the cash counter and present the filled annexure and pays the document fees
(fixed by Customs) according to the items; then the cashier puts a running
serial no and date and time of receiving on it and keeps it in a tray from
where the supervisor distributes these documents to the operator for data
entry; Data entry operator enters the data as per given annexure and note
down the document Sr. No of the items and name of CHA in the register; the
operator also writes the job no. on the annexure which is generated by the
system; thereafter its checklist is generated by the person who also notes
down the amount of coupon, CHA name and Job No. against the Sr. No; one
person attaches the checklist with annexure and keeps it outside in a rack;
from this rack, the users take their checklist and check the checklist detail
with given detail in annexure; then the users sign if all the entries are correct
or make the modification.

When the officers SIIB showed him four annexure he intimated that three
annexure are complete in every respect whereas in the annexure for B/E no.
994768 dt. 13.09.10 the required copy of G Card holder as an ID
proof, who has filed the annexure was not attached; that this was serious lapse
on the part of CMC official; that despite best efforts annexure for B/E Nos.
991362 dt 13.9.10, 168385 dt 16.11.10 and 168629 dt. 16.11.10 was not
traceable. It is not possible to generate B/E without the connivance of the
employees of the CMC.
The consignment in question at ACU New Delhi was booked through
transporter Kishan Pal and accordingly his statement was recorded wherein
he stated that he knew Prashun Jain as Sonu jain for last two years; that he
issued the bill in the name of Sonu Jain; that the subject cargo was booked by
Sonu Jain himself on 18.11.10 for Rohini New Delhi . He also submitted the
daily list signed by him wherein the entry was made in the name of Rajdhani
(Sonu Jain) and other detail like AWB and HAWB and B/E No were
mentioned. Transporter Kishan Pal also submitted a book showing the
account of Sonu Jain, page no (16 & 41).
Statement dt 8.12.10 of pankaj Kumar, Driver of Transporter was recorded
wherein he stated that after loading the goods from Air Cargo Complex, he
delivered the same to their respective destinations; that he was shown page no
16 of a Register bearing name AEROLINE PRODUCTS and BASIC and after
going through the same he admitted that the detail given there was Sonu
Jain and also stated that he had seen page no 17 of another register bearing
name CORPORATE LONG EXERCISE BOOK and he confirmed that the
entries were made by Munshi of Transporter Pravesh Kumar; that he
delivered the goods of Sonu Jain three times to Rohini; that Mobile No. of
Sonu Jain was 9312437816 and Sonu Jain used to load the goods and direct
him to take the goods to Rohini; that Sonu Jain used to note his mobile no;
that on the way, he used to receive calls from some person whom he did not
know; that on reaching Rohini he used to meet a person who used to unload
the goods; that in this manner he had delivered the goods of Sonu jain on
three occasions; that he had noted the address where he had deliver the goods
of Sonu Jain without any delivery challan/bilty/ any paper.
Search was conducted On 9.12.10 at the premises of M/s Simmtronics Infotech
P. Ltd., 206 Depali Bldg. Nehru place, New Delhi, the company who
introduced Prashant Gupta to the freight forwarder Nayak Aviation Service
(P) Ltd. 16. Statement dt. 09.12.2010 of Badan Singh Rautela of M/s Nayak
Aviation Services P. Ltd., Mahipalpur New Delhi , was recorded under section
108 of the Custom Act, 1962 wherein he stated that they had arranged the
forwarding of previous consignments in respect of Maya sales
communications, Nehru Place, New Delhi (Firm of Prashant Gupta); that all

the payments were received by them in cash as instructed via e-mail by M/S
Abhishek Electronics, Chandani Chowk, New Delhi, that Omprakash, cargo
asstt. Of their company used to handover D.O. to Sonu and also stated that
Omprakash has since left the services of their company.
It has also been gathered that the Customs department did not bother to
investigate the details of phone calls made through mobile numbers of
Prashant and Prasun Jain or Sonu Jain.
.
Statement dated 02.12.2010 of Samir Agarwal Partner of M/s Rajdhani
Crafts, Jaitpura, Chomu Road. Jaipur was recorded by the officers of Central
Excise, Jaipur under section 14 of the Central Excise Act. 1944 wherein he
stated that their business is of export of wooden furniture; that they procure
various materials duty free like machines, wood, polishing material hardware,
glues etc. against CT-3 that they have neither filed any B/E No 168385 dt
16.11.10 nor received any goods against the Said B/E; that he did not know
who has filed this B/E; that they dont have any office in Delhi or nearby
Delhi that they have not given any authority for release of imported goods to
any one except their CHAs, M/s EXIM Services, M/s P.M. Logistics Co. P Ltd.
And M/s HTL Logistics India P Ltd; that he did not know Prashun Jain.
Biplav Kumar and Prashant Gupta and never had any dealing with these
Persons.
To be continued