BIRGUNJ, JUN 28 -
In a major setback to the Department of Revenue Investigation (DRI) in Indian currency misappropriation case, the Parsa District Court on Wednesday ordered the release of 12 individuals accused of misappropriating Indian currency by producing fake custom clearance documents.
The court ordered to this effect stating that the seized amount be considered as the amount of property to be confiscated and in turn be charged as bail amount.
While filing the case, the DRI has claimed that as per the existing provisions, if the property to be confiscated is more than Rs 10 million, the accused is liable to face three years in jail in addition to a fine three times of the confiscated amount. However, a single bench of judge Baidya Nath Gupta stated that the amount seized from the accused is less than Rs 10 million and that no Indian currency was recovered from them.
The court slapped a penalty of Rs 3 million on Sandip Shah, Rs 2.7 million on Arabinda Kumar, Rs 2.1 million on Ramesh Kumar, Rs 3.4 million on Sukesh Mishra and Rs 2.1 million on Mukul Mishra.
The court verdict came as a big setback to the DRI that has sought stringent action against the fraudsters.
According to the DRI, the accused had misappropriated Indian currency on the pretext of importing goods from India. The department in September had found out that traders had been involved in transferring Indian currency to India through banks by producing fake customs clearance documents on the pretext of importing goods. “The verdict is silent on the fake documents recovered from the accused” said a senior lawyer.
The DRI had also asked the Nepal Rastra Bank to take action against branch managers concerned of nine commercial banks through which Indian currency was transferred to India. According to the DRI, the banks concerned failed to abide by the ‘Know Your Customer (KYC) norms.
Source: http://www.ekantipur.com/2012/06/28/business/parsa-court-releases-12-men-accused-of-ic-misappropriation/356278/
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