CBI court convicts six men of evading customs duty of ₹4.25-cr in 2000

The mastermind of the fraud- Toufiq Haji Gaffar, a Rajkot-based businessman, who was the key beneficiary of the fraud, was directed to pay ₹5.20 crore fine and also sentenced to seven years of imprisonment

Mumbai: A special CBI court on Wednesday convicted six men for evading customs duty to the tune of ₹4.25 crore. ( ₹22 crore, with interest today).

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The mastermind of the fraud- Toufiq Haji Gaffar, a Rajkot-based businessman, who was the key beneficiary of the fraud, was directed to pay ₹5.20 crore fine and also sentenced to seven years of imprisonment.

“Accused No.1 (Gaffar) reap the benefit of crime proceeds for a sum of ₹4.20 crore in the year 2000. If we apply simple interest on it, then as of today, it will be for a sum of ₹22 crore. Hence, I am of the view that the principal accused is held responsible for the commission of the economic offence and is liable to impose a fine amount commensurate with the wrongful loss sustained to the Government of India in the year 2000,” said special CBI judge SU Wadgaonkar.

The other accused who are convicted are - Maqsood Bakali, Bodu Shaikh, Zunzuniya Razak, Rouf Janoo, Devendra Dand, Kripa Shankar Tiwari, Vinayak Bhende and Vinay Kumar.

The then additional commissioner of Customs had written to the CBI against the accused on June 27, 2003, to register the complaint.

It was alleged that they came across transactions of a company namely M/s. Rama Syntex Pvt.Ltd. a purported registered company having three directors namely Sunil Agrawal, Vinod Bansali and Reghuveer Patel. On being probed it was revealed that it was a paper company and the Directors were fictitious persons whose names were used as a front by Gaffar.

CBI alleged that Gaffar took undue benefit of the CBI scheme whereby businessmen were given set off on import duty only if they exported finished goods. It was claimed that the company submitted forged documents. The prosecution claimed that Rama Syntex imported fabrics under the said scheme. 38 consignments of goods were cleared by the customs on the basis of the documents submitted by Gaffar and co- accused between May 12, 2000, to April 2, 2000. The company later diverted all the goods to the local market instead of exporting the finished goods which was a fundamental requirement of the scheme.

In the fraud, Bakali, Shaikh, Razak, Janoo, Dand and Tiwari, helped Gaffar prepare forged documents. While Bhende, the then Assistant Commissioner and Vinay Kumar, the then Appraiser with the customs department were accused of criminal misconduct as they failed to detect the fraud.

Bhende and Kumar have also been asked to pay a fine of ₹20 lakh and ₹5 lakh respectively.