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1. The allegations against Harjit Singh petitioner who seeks pre-arrest bail from this Court under Section. 438 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (for short, the Code) are that Crime No. RC/ 1/90(A)ACU(VI) under Section 120B read with Sections 420, 467, 468 and 474, Indian Penal Code, Section 13(2) read with Section 13(1)(d) of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988 and under Sections. 132, 135 and 136 of the Customs Act, 1962, was regisrtered on April 30, 1990, against Messrs Continental Carriers Pvt. Ltd., Messrs Dolman Commercial India Pvt. Ltd., Messrs Satya Enterprises Pvt. Ltd., Prem Kumar, Ramesh Kumar and certain unnamed officers of the Customs Department and certain other unknown persons, wherein the accused persons are alleged to have hatched a criminal conspiracy for illegal import of silver from Singapore to India and that in furtherance of said criminal conspiracy, Messrs Continental Carriers Pvt. Ltd. imported six consignments of silver bars weighing 15600 kgs. valued at Rs. 10,92,00,000/- approximately from June 1989 to October, 1989. The said consignments were imported as Diplomatic Cargo of the Embassy of the Germany People and Republic, New Delhi. The delivery of the abovesaid consignments was taken from Air Cargo Complex I.G.I. Airport, New Delhi by fraudulently submitting forged documents purported to have been issued by the Embassy of the Hungarian People Republic, New Delhi and forged exemption certificate purported to have been issued by the Ministry of External Affairs.

2. Another consignment weighing 3699 kgs. of silver bars arrived by KLM Flight No. KL-836, dated January 8, 1989 from Singapore valued at Rs. 2,58,93,000/- approximately which was also falsely declared as Diplomatic Cargo, on the basis of similar forged documents purported to have been issued by the Embassy of Hungarian People's Republic, New Delhi and forged exemption certificate, was imported by Messrs Continental Carriers Pvt. Ltd., Connaught Circus, New Delhi. The said consignment was seized by the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence, New Delhi, because this consignment did not belong to the Embassy of Hungarian People's Republic, New Delhi, as they did not import any Diplomatic Cargo on that date. Eight more consignment were imported illegally from Singapore in the name of Embassy of Federal Republic of Germany (7 consignments) and Embassy of Hungarian Peoples Republic (1 consignment) during the period June 1989 to July 1990 and delivery was obtained from Air Cargo Complex, IGI Airport, New Delhi (in case of 6 consignments) and from container Freight Station, Patparaganj (one consignment) in the name of the Embassies as the goods were declared to be diplomatic cargo. The delivery was obtained on the basis of forged bill of entries, exemption certificates of Ministry of External Affairs and other forged documents.

3. Another consignment which was being illegally imported from Singapore as diplomatic cargo in the name of Embassy of Federal Republic of Germany was seized by Inland Container Depott., unit of Customs at Pragati Maidan, New Delhi on July 11, 1990 which was found containing car a/ c compressors of the market value of Rs. 57,72,000/- and 4000 kgs. of silver of the market, value of Rs. 2,66,00,000/-. An attempt was made to obtain delivery of this consignment by using forged bill of entry, exemption certificate and other forged documents but before the delivery could be obtained, the goods were seized.

4. The Embassies had not imported any of the consignments mentioned above and the name of their Embassies had been used by declaring the consignments as diplomatic consignments which are exempted from duty.

5. The investigation disclosed that Harjit Singh petitioner and others were involved in the smuggling of silver and other contraband goods from Singapore to India, the subject-matter of investigation in this case, by using forged documents, i.e. bill of entries, exemption certificates purported to have been issued by Ministry of External Affairs, documents of the Embassy of Hungarian Peoples Republic and Embassy of Federal Republic of Germany, New Delhi, etc. By using the forged documents, the delivery of the consignments was obtained, thereby causing loss of crores of rupees of customs duty to the Government Exchequer.