Mumbai: The Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) officials have arrested a man allegedly involved in Rs 20 crore duty evasion case.
According to the DRI sources, specific intelligence was developed by the officers of DRI Mumbai which suggested that a Versova based company has been involved in gross undervaluation of branded luxury furniture consignments, imported through overseas suppliers since September 2021 till date, thereby evading huge amount of applicable import duties.
"Acting on the said intelligence and preliminary analysis, a search was conducted at various premises associated with the import company on May 27. During the search conducted, various incriminating documents evidences were recovered pointing out to the gross undervaluation and manipulation of documents at the time of import. Since, its inception, the importer has imported several consignments amounting to declared value of approximately Rs 24 crores, which on re-determination of value based on documentary evidences amounts to approximately Rs 60 crores resulting in huge evasion of applicable import duties around Rs 20 crore," said a DRI source.
"During the investigation, statements of various persons were recorded which established the undervaluation of furnitures imported by the said company. Role of a proprietor of a freight forwarding company has surface in the case during the probe. In his statement the accused proprietor has admitted that he used to prepare fabricated invoices for the import company wherein he used direct his employee to enter false suppressed value of the articles imported by the said firm to evade Customs duty. He used to do so in lieu of extra money over and above the charges for usual charges for forwarding. Further he also admitted that he directed his staff to destroy the evidences of his involvement in the case," the source added.
The DRI officials said that in the ongoing investigation, more pieces of evidence are being gathered and other key members of the syndicate are yet to be apprehended.
"Further, sources for the purchase of the luxurious imported furniture, transfer of money through illegal hawala channels etc. are yet to be investigated. The involvement of other key members and sources for procurement is being investigated. The respondent is the part of international smuggling syndicate and have committed grave economical offence," the official said.
