Commissioner of Customs Export Vs Ravindra Kumar (Delhi High Court)
The Delhi High Court recently issued a judgment in the matter of Commissioner of Customs Export Vs Ravindra Kumar, concerning the attempted illegal export of 1103.1 Kgs of ‘Red Sanders’ wood, an endangered species protected under the international CITES convention. The appeal, filed by the Customs Department, challenged a decision by the Customs, Excise and Service Tax Appellate Tribunal (CESTAT) that rejected the imposition of an additional penalty on freight forwarder Ravindra Kumar under Section 114AA of the Customs Act, 1962. The consignment, seized based on intelligence, was found to contain the prohibited wood despite being falsely declared in export documents as “household goods.”
The attempted smuggling operation was intricate, involving a chain of intermediaries and fraudulent documentation. The original baggage declaration was falsely filed in the name of an individual, Vipin Dua, and the related airway bill was issued in the name of a fictitious company, M/s Sikki Auto India Pvt. Ltd. Ravindra Kumar, operating as M/s Vin Global Logistics, was identified as a key player. His role involved obtaining fraudulent documents from the Customs Broker (Sarvesh Kumar) and facilitating the issuance of the fake airway bill through another freight forwarder (Mayank Gupta). Crucially, he later coordinated letters to change the consignor, consignee, and description of the goods in the airway bill to align the document with the fake baggage declaration, playing a “critical role in the entire conspiracy to attempt to smuggle red sanders.” The Order-in-Original, issued by the Adjudicating Authority on July 25, 2019, had previously confirmed the confiscation of the wood and imposed penalties on all involved parties, including a ₹10 lakh penalty on Ravindra Kumar under Section 114 of the Customs Act, which punishes abetment of improper exportation.
