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426 EXCISE LAW TIMES [ Vol. 372

sought nor was his statement retracted. During this period the appellants ap-
proached Hon’ble High Court for cross-examination of a few witnesses. But the
statement of Sanjay Patel was not retracted except in the reply filed after the
cross-examination of all witnesses. The WhatsApp messages were recovered un-
der a Panchnama from a mobile recovered under a Panchnama. The recovery of
phone or messages was not challenged as the Panchnama was not challenged.
Furthermore the WhatsApp messages are corroborated by the recovery of cost
sheet from appellants premises as well as the action/documentation (as detailed
in following paras) pursuant to the said messages as detailed in OIO.
5.4 The Show Cause notice gives the summary of the messages in fol-
lowing words :
“38.2 The printouts of the Whatsapp messages relevant to the investiga-
tion, contained in the Mobile phone of Shri Sanjay Patel were taken under
Panchnama. The messages exchanged between Shri Sanjay Patel and one
Shri Sachin No. 971-527247299 of M/s. GStar Jewellers LLC, Dubai, UAE
clearly bring out the modus operandi of melting the gold of 995 purity mixed
with silver, cadmium, zinc, copper etc., preparing grains/flakes of the mix-
ture of these metals, preparing a wet base of red soil, mixing the metal with
the wet soil base and thereafter heating and drying of the composite mix-
ture. The resultant preparation in the form of lumps of red soil containing
grains/flakes of gold were imported into India by declaring the same as
natural gold ore concentrate. The Whatsapp messages from PK No. 6585 to
7264 clearly establish the above fact. These messages pertain to first con-
signment of gold imported by M/s. MMZ from M/s. Gstar Jewellers LLC,
Dubai in the guise of fake gold ore concentrate. In these series of messages
during 13-11-2013 to 14-11-2014 Shri Sanjay Patel is giving minute by mi-
nute instructions to Shri Sachin for preparing the fake gold ore concentrate.
At PK No. 6586 and 6587 Shri Sanjay Patel is asking Shri Sachin whether he
is preparing grains/flakes or preparing dough of Red Geru (red Indian
soil). In response Shri Sachin at PK No. 6588 informs Shri Sanjay Patel that
he is preparing grains/flake At PK No. 6593 Shri Sachin asks about the size
of the grains/flakes and in response Shri Sanjay Patel informs at PK No.
6596, 6598 and 6599 that it should be above 3 mm but below 11 mm and at
the most it should not be more than 12-13 mm. At PK No. 6611 and 6612
Shri Sachin informs that the metals are being melted and that he would
send a photo after preparing grains/flakes. Shri Sanjay asks about the tem-
perature at PK No. 6613 to which Shri Sachin informs that it is at 856 and at
PK No. 6616 to 6618 he informs that he has added zinc and copper, he
would add cadmium before 900, add silver at 900 and thereafter add gold
at 1000.
38.3 In the messages at PK No. 6874 to 7002 Shri Sanjay Patel gives in-
structions for preparing the soil base. He asks Shri Sachin to use 50 gms liq-
uid Sodium Silicate, 400 gms of geru (red Indian soil) and half a litre of wa-
ter, mix them and heat (stir) properly to make them smooth. He also in-
structs Shri Sachin simultaneously to boil 3.2 kgs of fine sand in 1 litre of
water and add water as is needed. At PK No. 6892 Shri Sanjay Patel advices
Shri Sachin to use 100 gms Caustic Soda if Sodium Silicate is not available.
At PK No. 6900 to 6903 Shri Sanjay informs that the preparation would be
very good and a Perfect Duplicate of the African original. At PK No. 7006 to
7025 Shri Sanjay Patel instructs Shri Sachin to add slowly the grains/flakes
and water (prepared as above at Para 39.2) to the wet soil base and keep
EXCISE LAW TIMES  1st May 2020  204