I. P. Mukerji, J. - (1.) The Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (hereinafter referred to as "the appellants" which reference include the appellant authorities) acted on reliable information received by it, to the effect that illegal importation of merchandise was being made from Dubai and Hong Kong to Kolkata through its airport. They included items like cigarettes, pen drives, memory cards, RAM, watches, cameras, protein supplements, steroids, hormone supplements, footwear, mobile accessories, mobile parts and so on. They were brought into India by a syndicate of dishonest persons operating all over the country. On 5th June, 2017 the appellants made a raid and identified consignments which were described as "courier" and "general import consignments". Out of them three "courier consignments" and sixteen "general import consignments" were examined at the air cargo complex, Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose International Airport between 5th June, 2017 and 1st August, 2017. These nineteen consignments comprised of the above goods. Their value was about Rs.195 crores. These officials found that they were being imported by gross mis-declaration of their description, quantity and value which resulted in large scale import duty evasion. This syndicate of illegal importers acted through a network of middlemen. Investigation revealed that Navneet Kumar, Deputy Commissioner, Vikky Kumar, Appraiser and Pranabananda Bala, Examining Officer (EO) actively aided this syndicate. They are all respondents in the above batch of appeals. The value of the illegally imported items was Rs.2,97,08,400/-. In the bill of entry which came into the hands of the appellants later it was found that the total assessable value was declared to be only Rs.7,45,305/-.
(2.) Statements under Section 108 of the Customs Act, 1962 (the said Act) were obtained from the employees or agents of the customs brokers and the conniving customs officials. It came to light that this syndicate was large, operating from Kolkata and Delhi. There was a network of smugglers aided by customs brokers and select customs officials headed by Navneet Kumar. The smuggling activity included not only undervaluation or mis-declaration of goods but also creation and fabrication of documents, creation, production and acceptance of fake valuation documents, constant operation of this network through diverse mobile phones and so on.
(3.) By the impugned show-cause notice dated 2nd December, 2017 the persons named therein were asked to show-cause why:- "a) the said seized goods imported under Airway Bill No.16083772415 dated 2.6.2017 and Bill of Entry No.9962773 dated 5.6.2017 in respect of M/s JashInsha Exports Pvt. Ltd/-, valued at Rs.2,97,08,400/- should not be confiscated under Sections 111(d), 111(f), 111(i), 111(l) & 111(m) of the Customs Act, 1962 on the grounds as discussed above; b) penalty under Section 112 (a), Section 112(b) and Section 114AA of the Customs Act, 1962 should not be imposed on each one of them on the grounds as discussed above.";