1. These appeals have been preferred against a common order of the Customs, Excise and Service Tax Appellate Tribunal (hereafter "CESTAT") dated 25.01.2011. The impugned order had dealt with a batch of 35 appeals – some of them dealt with the present appellants. The appellants are hereafter referred to by their names for the sake of convenience. The appeals had arisen out of common adjudication order dated 01.10.2007 by the Commissioner of Customs (hereafter referred to as the “Commissioner”).

2. The following questions of law are sought to be urged by the appellants:

(a) Whether the findings in the impugned order with regard to abetment by the appellants are justified in law;

(b) Did the CESTAT fall into an error of law in upholding the findings based on denial of natural justice, especially the refusal to grant cross-examination to the appellants;

(c) Whether the findings based upon mobile phone records and confessional statements of some individuals, notably the co-notices, is sustainable in law, in the circumstances of the case, in the absence of any other corroborative material;

(d) Did the CESTAT err in its findings regarding the method adopted in arriving at the average weight to assess liability, and the absence of essential documents like the passenger declarations.

Facts of the case:

3. On 28.08.2000, a foreign national Olga Kozireva tried to illegally import and smuggle into India, a quantity of 81160 yards (74212 meters) of silk textiles without declaring them, as was required of her under Section 77 of the Customs Act, 1962 (hereafter called the “Act”). She had landed at the Indira Gandhi International Airport (IGIA) after travelling on a Kyrgyzstan Airlines flight. This incident led to investigations. Olga Kozireva was detained and subsequently, her statement was recorded under Section 108 of the Customs Act. This led to further investigations during the course of which Abdul Qahar, an Afghan national, several others as well as employees of Kyrgyzstan Airlines were asked to reply to Show Cause Notices (SCNs). The SCNs were issued to one Dil Agha, Mamoor Khan, Sanaf Sana, Naseem, V.K. Khurana and Nazira. Abdul Qahar, the Afghan national, in his statement dated 30.11.2000, confirmed to knowing Olga Kozireva; he identified her. He confirmed that she had, on previous occasions, exported goods of Chinese origin to him. He also revealed the mobile telephone numbers of certain individuals.

4. On the basis of statements of several individuals (notably Dil Agha, Olga, Sandeep Bhatia (dated 13-12-2000) Virender Sehrawat (dated 08-01-2001) and Ajay Sharma (dated 23.12.2000), all security representatives of United Airlines India) – including those of the appellants, the investigations by the Department of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) found that between 24.07.1997 and 24.08.2000, Olga Kozireva had travelled in and out of India on 24 occasions. Out of these, on 19 occasions, she was cleared through "Red Channel" and allowed to proceed after spot adjudication and payment of redemption fine and duty. On the other five instances, she walked through the "Green Channel". Besides the statement of Olga Kozireva, those of R.N. Zutshi, one of the appellants, was recorded. This statement of R.N. Zutshi mentioned the role of the other appellants, i.e. Ajay Yadav, Yashpal, V.K. Khurana, T.K.R. Reddy, Pradeep Rana and Anil Madan. In addition, Dil Agha’s statement was recorded on 11.07.2001, which also sought to implicate R.N. Zutshi, V.K. Khurana, T.K.R. Reddy and Pradeep Rana.

5. On 23.08.2001, the Commissioner issued SCNs to all individuals, including the present appellants who were working as officers in various capacities in the Customs Department. The allegations against the appellants inter alia centred around their complicity in the smuggling of huge quantities of silk textiles on 24 occasions. Based upon the quantity sought to be smug