MUMBAI: Twenty-two years after five people were accused of being involved in Rs 4.72 crore customs duty evasion under the Duty Entitlement Pass Book (DEPB) scheme, a special CBI court this week found them guilty. DEFB is an export incentive scheme. Key accused Snehalata Jaiswal, was sentenced to three years imprisonment and fined Rs 3.80 crore. KMP Syntex Pvt Ltd, the firm where Snehalata was a director, was separately fined Rs 3 lakh.
Special CBI judge SU Wadgaonkar also directed that the amount lying in Snehalata’s account in Central Bank of India is to be credited to the government at the end of the appeal period. Snehalata’s husband, Samdarshi Jaiswal, prime accused, died during pendency of trial and the case against him was abated.
Special public prosecutor Jitendra K Sharma cited evidence of over 50 witnesses to seek conviction.
While three others — Ramesh Singh, Kiran Cheulkar and Pradeep Sanghavi — were handed 2-year sentences and fined Rs 4.50 lakh each, the fifth accused, Suresh Kumar Jain, was sentenced to 1 year rigorous imprisonment and fined Rs 3 lakh.
Sentencing the accused, the court held that economic offences have serious consequences on the country’s financial health. “Evidence on record indicates that at every stage while obtaining, transfer, utilisation of DEPB Scrips, fraud is committed, thereby Rs 4 crore loss is caused to the government in 1998. Since then, near about 23 years have passed. If the same amount were deposited in the bank, the amount would get for a value of over Rs 25 crore,” the special judge said.
In July last year, another accused in the case, Abhinav Singh (54), a former Customs appraising officer, who was absconding for 20 years, was sentenced to 16 months imprisonment and fined Rs 9 lakh. The accused was arrested from Mathura, where he was an associate professor at a medical college, hospital and research centre. He had allegedly secured the job on the basis of forged documents. He was tried separately.
On September 21, 1999, the case was registered by CBI, Economic Offences Wing. It was alleged that the accused, in collusion with Abhinav Singh, obtained 18 DEPB scrips from the office of the joint director general of foreign trade in Mumbai and New Delhi, for duty-free import in the names of four fake firms.
Proceeds of crime were allegedly used by the Jaiswals.