The summoning of an accused in a criminal case should be based on sufficient evidence, and further investigation can be pursued under Section 173(8) Cr.P.C.

I.S. MEHTA, J.

1. By virtue of the present petitions filed under Section 482 Cr.P.C. the petitioners, i.e. M.S. Badhan, Sibnath Mal and Rajesh Sarda, seeks to quash and set aside the impugned summoning order dated 23.04.2015 passed by the learned Special Judge (PC Act) (CBI)-6, Patiala House Court, New Delhi in CR No. 06A/14 and RC No. 01(A)/2013/ACU-VIII in AC-III/CBI/ND under Sections 7/12/13(2) read with Section 13(1)(d) of PC Act titled CBI vs. N.K. Rai etc.

2. The brief facts stated are that a case was registered on the basis of source information that Nand Kishore Rai, Superintendent of Customs, Custom House, Strand Road, Kolkata in criminal conspiracy with Surendra Singh Bisht, Superintendent of Customs, Kolkata Port Commissionerate; P. Vijay Kumar, Deputy Director, Directorate of Revenue Intelligence(DRI), Mumbai; Pydi Rama Prasad, Deputy Commissioner, Directorate General of Central Excise Intelligence(DGCEI), Kolkata; Baljeet Singh, Customs Appraiser, New Customs House, New Delhi and other unknown officers of Customs Department were demanding and accepting pecuniary favours and illegal gratification for processing import/export related work of one Rajesh Sarda(petitioner herein) of M/s Universal Agency.

3. During the investigation it was revealed that the proposal of M/s Universal Agency, Kolkata was initiated for transportation of cargo from Kolkata port by railway to Nepal through Nautanwa/Jogbani Land Customs Station(LCS) by rail. In this regard permission from the Central Board of Excise and Customs(CBEC), New Delhi was required. The said proposal of the petitioner-Rajesh Sarda was processed and recommended by N.K. Rai, Superintendent of Customs and was forwarded to CBEC, New Delhi through Kolkata Port Commissionerate for approval and N.K. Rai and other officers of the Customs Department pursued the matter with regard to expeditious processing of the said proposal.

4. It was further revealed in the investigation that the aforementioned officers of Customs along with the petitioner- M.S. Badhan the then Member, Central Board of Excise and Customs(CBEC) were involved in getting the final clearance to the application of M/s Universal Agency dated 23.07.2012 for transportation of bulk cargo, including fertilizer by rail through Jogbani and Nautanwa Land Customs Station. The accused persons and other officers of the Customs were in contact with one another for the purpose of processing the file of M/s Universal Agency and also there has been demand and acceptance of bribe and conversations recorded for transportation of bribe money.

5. The conversation of the calls between various persons involved in the case recorded through telephone of the accused persons were collected from Special Unit, CBI, Kolkata and further the specimens of voices of the accused persons namely- Rajesh Sarda(petitioner herein), P. Rama Prasad, Baljit Singh and Surender Singh Bisht were sent to CFSL, CBI, New Delhi for scientific examination and the specimen of voice of the petitioner- M.S. Badhan was also sent for scientific examination. The CFSL expert had given positive opinion with respect to the voice specimens of the accused persons.

6. The investigation further revealed that the approval of the file was granted by the petitioner- M.S. Badhan on 14.12.2012. The chain of the movement of the bribe money started from Rajesh Sarda(petitioner herein) who was seeking permission for transportation of his cargo to Nepal by rail and this amount was handed over to N.K. Rai through accused Shib Nath Mal(petitioner herein) and the amount was given to accused Surendra Singh Bisht who delivered it to accused Pydi Rama Prasad. Thereafter, the accused Pydi Rama Prasad bought the amount of Rs. 5 lakhs in Delhi and delivered it to the petitioner- M.S. Badhan at his residence. This chain and movement of the bribe money was established through the telephonic conversation.

7. Thereafter, the charge-sheet/closure report dated 28.05.2014 was submitted by the re