JUDGMENT :

KRISHNA RAO, J.

The plaintiff has filed the present suit against the defendants praying for a decree for a sum of US $428500 along with interest and pendent lite interest at the rate of 18% per annum and further interest at the rate of 18% per annum from due dates of payment of the Letters of Credit, or in the alternative decree for Rs. 4 Crores as damages.

CASE OF THE PLAINTIFF:

1. The plaintiff is a Company incorporated under the provisions of Companies Act, 1956 and is engaged in several businesses including trading and exports of agriculture products. The defendant no. 1 is a businessman who is carrying on the business at Bangladesh. The defendant no. 1 is an importer of agriculture products and he functions through various agents including the defendant nos. 2 and 3. The defendant no. 2 carries on business under the name and style of Mamun Brothers as Sole Proprietor at Bangladesh. The defendant no. 3 carries on business under the name and style of Shad Enterprises as a Sole Proprietor at Bangladesh. The defendant nos. 4 and 5 are the community brokers acting in tandem from the office of the defendant no. 5 at Kolkata. The defendant nos. 4 and 5 carry on business through various companies/partnerships/proprietorship concerns which are family run companies controlled by defendant nos. 4 and 5.

2. The defendant no. 4 controls several companies including LNC Agro Mills Pvt. Limited. The majority shareholding of LNC Agro Mills Private Limited is that of defendant no. 4 and his family members. The defendant no. 4 is also in control of a proprietorship concern named and styled as Nivedita Exports.

3. The defendant nos. 7 and 8 are Customs House clearing and forwarding agent at Ghojadanga Port, India and Bhomra Port, Bangladesh respectively. The defendant no. 8 is also the CNF agent of the defendant no. 1. The defendant no. 6 carries on business under the name and style of R.B. Roadways as a Sole proprietor at Ghodanga Gate.

4. In the month of January, 2015, the defendant nos. 4 and 5 had approached the plaintiff with the proposal for exporting rice and wheat to Bangladesh and at that point of time the defendant no. 5 identified himself as a business partner of the defendant no. 4. The defendant nos. 4 and 5 had given attractive proposal for doing the business with the plaintiff which led to various meetings which was held between the plaintiff and the defendants.

5. The defendant nos. 4 and 5 introduced the plaintiff to the defendant No. 1 as an importer of Bangladesh having high repute and the defendant No. 1 was introduced by the defendant Nos. 4 and 5 as Vice-Chairman of Khulna Chamber of Commerce. Considering the status of the defendant Nos. 1, 4 and 5, the plaintiff had no occasion to mistrust or disbelieve the representations of the defendants and relying on such representation and reasonably believing the same to be true, the plaintiff proceeded with the defendants for business. The defendant Nos. 1, 4 and 5 required the plaintiff to export rice and wheat from India to Bangladesh in favour of two consignees i.e. defendant Nos. 2 and 3 who were also identified as concerns under the control and management of defendant No. 1.

6. The defendant Nos. 4 and 5 were acting as brokers of the defendant Nos. 1, 2 and 3 and had represented that they would take care of the entire modalities of identifying the sellers of such agriculture products which is to be exported and would also take the responsibility of the transporters as well as CNF agents. The entire modality of purchasing rice and wheat, the shipment of the same as well as the responsibilities pertaining to the clearance by the customs authority were undertaken by the defendant Nos.4 and 5 in consultation with the defendant Nos. 1, 2 and 3.

7. The plaintiff was introduced to one LNC Agro Mills Private Limited as one of the primary suppliers of rice whereas the suppliers of wheat were one Asis Kumar Dutta, B.N. Traders, M.H. Trading and Nividita Exports. Apart from the afor