The Hindu : Former excise department officer sentenced after 29 years

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Jan 31, 2004

New Delhi

New Delhi

Former excise department officer sentenced after 29 years

NEW DELHI, JAN 30. About 29 years after some persons cheated the government of excise duty on tobacco, a Delhi court today sentenced a former senior excise department officer and two others to rigorous imprisonment of three years for causing a loss of Rs 1.13 lakh to the government exchequer.

Special Judge P K Bhasin also imposed a fine of Rs 3,000 each on then Central Excise Superintendent (Bharatpur) J S Aggrawal, one Hari Kishan and one Rameshwar Singh who cheated the government of duty by persuading officers to allow movement of non-duty tobacco to a private warehouse in Rajasthan in 1975.

Mr Bhasin found Aggrawal guilty of entering into a criminal conspiracy with Hari Kishan and Singh, who were involved in tobacco business, to cheat the government of excise duty between February 1975 and October 1975.

While one of the accused, Hakim Singh, is a Proclaimed Offender in the case, Excise Inspector Shiv Singh died during the trial.

The case was handed over to the CBI after the matter came to light during an October 1975 Central Excise Department raid at a warehouse in Rajakhera in Rajasthan belonging to one Prem Chand Jain who later became an approver in the case.

The Department found that the licence for storing non-duty tobacco was being missued and tobacco from Bharatpur, Agra, Rajakhera, Delhi and other areas was being stored at the warehouse.

The case, which was initially being heard by a Special Judge at Jaipur, was transferred to Delhi by the Supreme Court in December 1979.

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