Prashant Mehta, MD of gold-importing firm Rajesh Exports, and the first accused in the case related to gold smuggling from the Kochi Special Economic Zone (SEZ), filed a revision petition before the Ernakulam District and Sessions Court to set aside the non-bailable arrest warrant issued against him by Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate a few weeks ago. According to the petition filed by Prashant Mehta, there are no grounds or provisions of law by which the Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate can issue non-bailable arrest warrant against him.
In his petition, Mehta submitted that the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) investigating the case against him has been sending summons and all those were duly replied to. He has rightly given the reasons regarding his anxiety to co-operate with the investigation, he submitted.
“The total duty evaded on material worth `1 crore seized by the DRI would not exceed `50 lakh. There is no material to show evasion of duty of more than `50 lakh. There has been physical seizure of only 900 grams of gold,” he submitted. According to him, the Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate Court has no power to exercise non-bailable warrant as no material or documents were produced to substantiate evidence against him.
He submitted that the non-bailable arrest warrant issued on September 30 is a non-speaking order.
The court was required to pass a oral order along with the written one, particularly considering the facts and circumstances of the matter.
However, the DRI filed another petition objecting the cancellation of the arrest warrant against Prashant Mehta. In the petition, the DRI submitted that the Revision Petition can be filed only in the final order of the case. However, the warrant issued against the accused is not the final order. So there is no ground to set aside the non-bailable arrest warrant against Prashant Mehta, the DRI submitted.