Delhi HC stays DRI proceedings against Hero Group chairman Pawan Munjal

The Delhi High Court has stayed the proceedings relating to foreign currency registered against Hero Motocorp Chairman Pawan Kant Munjal by the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence DRIThe high court in an interim order of November 3 noted that Munjal has been exonerated by the Customs Excise and Service Tax Appellate Tribunal CESTAT on the same set of facts and this was not disclosed before the trial court and that the petitioner has been able to make out a case for interim protectionConsidering the contentions raised by the senior counsel appearing for the petitioner especially the fact that the summoning order has been passed without giving any reasons for the same this court is of the opinion that prima facie the matter requires consideration Justice Saurabh Banerjee saidThe high court stayed the operation of July 1 2023 order passed by an additional chief metropolitan magistrate here and all proceedings emanating therefrom pending before the ACMM qua with respect to the petitioner till February 21 2024 the next date of hearingThe DRI had filed a prosecution complaint last year on charges of allegedly carrying attempting to export and illicit export of prohibited items that is foreign currency against P K Munjal a third party service provider company called SEMPL and individuals identified as Amit Bali Hemant Dahiya K R Raman and some othersThe interim order was passed by the high court on November 3 on a petition by Munjal seeking to quash the complaint pending before ACMM and the July order passed by the trial courtThe high court issued notice to DRI on the main petition and granted three weeks to file a replySenior advocate Mukul Rohatgi representing the petitioner sought to stay the trial courts summoning order passed in the complaint alleging that the offences were committed under the Customs Act saying that it has been passed in a mechanical manner without observing any reasonsThe counsel said the trial court passed the order without appreciating the facts that the DRI concealed the March 28 2022 judgment passed by CESTAT whereby the petitioner was exonerated on the same set of facts which form part of the present complaint that is a verbatim reproduction of the showcause notice of July 2019The high court said perusal of the records reveal that the October 6 2022 complaint is identical to the July 17 2019 showcause notice and the documents relied on are substantially identicalIt is also not disputed that the order dated March 28 2022 passed by the CESTAT in was not disclosed before the ACMM 01 Patiala House Courts New Delhi it saidRegarding the nondisclosure of the March last year order the DRI counsel submitted that since it was not a party to the proceedings before the CESTAT there was no occasion for either being aware or withholding any information qua that orderThe Enforcement Directorate had also registered a case under various sections of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act PMLA The case mainly stems from the charge sheet of the DRI an investigation arm of the Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs CBIC filed before a Delhi Court under section 135 of the Customs Act evasion of duty or prohibitionsThe ED said Salt Experience and Management Pvt Ltd SEMPL allegedly illegally exported foreign currency equivalent to about Rs 54 crore to various countries during the period 20142015 to 20182019 which was ultimately used for personal expenses of P K MunjalSEMPL it alleged got issued foreign exchange to the tune of about Rs 14 crore in the name of its officials employees such as Hemant Dahiya Mudit AggarwalAmit Makker Gautam Kumar Vikram Bajaj and Ketan Kakkar over and above the annual permissible limit of USD 250000 in various financial yearsSEMPL has also drawn foreign exchange travel forex cards in huge amounts in the name of other employees who didnt even travel abroad it claimedThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever