Ahmedabad: There is no paper case, no one complains, no witnesses, no evidence, and even all that is accused – this is the case of smuggling during the trial, 45 years after customs officials make spasms.
Only two of the 12 were accused of being assigned by smuggling of synthetic fabrics and metallic threads in 1976 present at the city session court.
So, when the department told the court that it had lost a case paper and did not know where the officers involved in this case were, the two defendants asked the court to end their long trials and released.
According to the details of the case, in December 1976, customs officials had arrested trucks that smuggled synthetic fabrics and metallic yarn worth Rs 1.54 lakh to India through Kutch.
The department named 14 people but ordered 12 people in the case of smuggling registered in 1986.
Someone was given forgiveness while the department could contact only seven men left.
This case was sent to the session court to be tried in 1989.
This case appeared to hear in 2019 and the court learned that the main defendant, Jumma Hingoria, had died.
One more defendant was killed about 25 years ago, although his death could not be confirmed so the court continued the trial against him.
Only two were accused of remaining through their advocates.
During the trial, the customs department told the court that case papers could not be traced.
When the court asked for prosecution to reconstruct the case paper, it stated the helplessness even in photocopying documents, said that by the passing more than four decades, all documents were lost.
In addition, a special prosecutor in this case also died in 2020.
The case received his final blow when the department told the court that no officer involved in this case could be contacted and their existence was unknown.
This situation caused two defendants, Niranjan Teckcandani and Rasiklal Thakkar, who were senior citizens now, to ask the court that they now have physical weaknesses related to age.
“They faced trial trials for a long time, and prosecution also did not seem to be in a condition to place evidence.
The case against them must be dismissed,” said their advocate.
Additional Judge sessions, M A Bhatti, narrated in his demands how it is impossible to try the people accused of the absence of case, complainant, witnesses and even some defendants, and there is no evidence to base belief in this case.
AHD: The case of 45-year smuggling falls apart in court
