IMPORTANT POINTS
Strong suspicion against accused is sufficient for presuming his guilt.
Being charged u/s 13(1)(c) of 13(1)(d) of the PC Act is not required for invoking section 15 thereof.

JUDGMENT

Uday Umesh Lalit, J.

1. Leave granted. This appeal arises out of the judgment and order dated 22.08.2011 passed by the High Court of Madras in Crl. R.C. No.106 of 2009 whereby it set aside the order of the Special Court dated 19.12.2008 dismissing the application for discharge preferred by the Respondents herein.

2. On 08.02.2007 RC-1/E/2007-CBI/EOW/CHENNAI was registered under sections 120B read with section 420, 467, 468, 471 IPC and 477-A IPC and section 13 (2) read with section 13(1)(d) of The Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988 (POC Act for short) and section 32 of the Customs Act, 1962 on the allegations that accused nos. 1-3 named therein had entered into a criminal conspiracy with accused no.4 who was Appraiser of Customs, Inland Container Depot (ICD), Irugur, Coimbatore and with accused no.5, Inspector of Customs, Inland Container Depot, Irugur, Coimbatore during 2004-2005 and in pursuance of said conspiracy had filed false and fabricated documents to claim duty draw back to the tune of Rs.2.14 crores (approximately) from ICD, Irugur. It was alleged that said accused nos.1-3 had filed certain Shipping Bills and that the export documents were assessed by accused no.4 i.e. respondent no.1 and after such assessment the goods were examined by accused no.5 i.e. respondent No.2. After completion of the customs formalities the goods were stuffed in containers which were sealed and transported to Cochin for consignment to Dubai. It was alleged that accused no.1 produced different sets of forged shipping bills by adding a digit before the total quantity of shipment thereby inflating the value of shipment and fraudulently claimed duty draw back. These forged shipping bills were endorsed by the respondents. A chart was relied upon to show how the total quantity and the present market value differed by addition of a digit. The chart was as follows: 

 3. A regular case was registered on the allegations as aforesaid and investigation was conducted by CBI which later filed charge sheet against said five accused on 28.04.2008. The allegations against respondent nos. 1 & 2 were:

“……… A-4 Arun Kumar while preparing GR Forms is supposed to assess the value in Indian rupees for the value mentioned in US dollars by the Exporter. While preparing GR Forms, A-1 Manish Kumar Jain and A-2 R.V. Shanmugam prepared two such documents one showing correct weight in kg and value in US dollars and the other having inflated weight in kg and value in US dollars. A-1 Manish Kumar Jain and A-2 R.V. Shanmugam have put two before the weight inflating by 20,000 kgs and one before the value in US dollars inflating it by 1 lakh dollars. But A-4 Arun Kumar while endorsing it in the reverse of the form assessed and calculated the value of export in rupees and wrote the same in his own handwriting under his signature. But in the present market value mentioned in the GR Forms by the Exporter, a digit five has been added before the value in rupees, thus inflating the value by Rs.50 lakhs. This value, of course could not be the correct value if calculate at the rate of Rs.43.55 per US dollar. This was deliberately overlooked by A-4 Arun Kumar and he failed to prepare the GR Forms in consult