MOOL CHAND Vs. STATE

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This Special Leave Petition is directed against the Order of the Designated Court, Delhi dated 3-6-91 rejecting the application for regular bail to Mool Chand Shah, the petitioner herein and in the alternative releasing him on interim bail.

(2.) The petitioner is an accused in FIR No. 53 of 1991 of Chandni Mahal Police Station, Delhi registered under Sections 3 and 4 of the Terrorist and Disruptive Activities (Prevention) Act, 1987 (TADA) and under Section 8 (1) of the Foreign Exchange Regulation Act (FERA). The prosecution is as follows:

(3.) The petitioner is an unauthorised dealer illegally dealing in foreign exchange commonly known as Hawala transaction and he has been instrumental in transferring huge sums received from different sources to the members of militant outfits of Jammu and Kashmir for use in terrorist and disruptive activities. It is stated that on receipt of a secret information, a trap was laid by Delhi Police on 25-3-1991 resulting in the apprehension of accused Ashfaq Hussain Lone from whom three incriminating letters, one addressed to Master Ahsan Dar, Commander-in-Chief of Hizbul Mujaheedin, a banned Terrorist Organisation of Kashmir Valley and another addressed to one Mashud containing information about making arrangements for a house in Srinagar and for recruiting people in the valley and the third one addressed to Firdaus containing secessionist messages, formation of militant groups etc. were seized. At the time of the apprehension, accused Ashfaq Hussain Lone shouted slogans, 'Pakistan Zindabad', 'Azad Kashmir Zindabad'etc. the case FIR No. 53 of 1991, referred to above, was registered only after his arrest on 25-3-1991. In pursuance of his statement, 23 drafts for a sum of Rs. 15.50 lakhs and a sum of Rupees 50,000/- in cash were also recovered which amounts are stated to have been given to accused Ashfaq Hussain Lone by accused Shahbuddin Ghauri, a research student of JNU who in turn stated to have received the same from Dr. Ayub Thakur of U.K. through illegal means of Hawala Transaction. Accused Shahbuddin Ghauri was also arrested by Delhi Police on 27-31991 and on his pointing out, another accused Shambhu Dayal Sharma alias Guptaji who is stated to have delivered the sum of Rs. 16.27 lakhs, was also arrested on 1-4-1991. On the disclosure of accused Shambhu Dayal Sharma to the effect that the petitioner, Mool Chand Shah was the person through whom he started transactions at Delhi and passed on the money to different people including to accused Shahbuddin Ghauri which were recovered from Ashfaq Hussain Lone while being taken to Kashmir for terrorist activities, Delhi Police sent a requisition to Bombay on 13-4-1991 for apprehending petitioner-accused Mool Chand Shah who was accordingly arrested at Bombay on 16-4-1991 and was brought to Delhi on 23-4-1991 on a production warrant issued by the Court. The petitioner was kept in police custody on Court's order up to 10-5-1991 for interrogation and thereafter was sent to judicial custody up to 29-6-1991. (It is now stated at the bar that the remand of the petitioner is further extended.) The investigation of this case was taken over by the CBI on 20-4-1991. The CBI conducted simultaneous searches at 20 places including the places of sub-bankers of Hawala from where the accused persons used to collect the money for making payments to different persons and also at the places where the final deliveries were made. According to the prosecution, a huge amount of Rs. 93,52,755/- in cash and foreign exchange worth Rupees 3,69,307/-, Indira Vikas Patra worth Rs. 10,50,000/ -and gold bars worth Rs. 12 lakhs were recovered and the investigation, connecting the terrorist links of the places from where the money had been kept/delivered by the accused persons in this case is continuing not only in India but also in abroad and that the investigation is likely to take sufficient time to unearth the whole conspiracy behind the said heinous crime of funding terrorists for illegal terrorist and secessionist activities.