HARMEET SINGH Vs. UNION OF INDIA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The petitioner has preferred the present writ petition to assail the Detention Order bearing No. PD-12002/05/20-COFEPOSA dated 05.06.2020 (hereinafter referred to as the "Detention Order" ) issued against the petitioner by Respondent No. 2- Joint Secretary, COFEPOSA, Government of India under Section 3(1) of the Conservation of Foreign Exchange and Prevention of Smuggling Activities Act, 1974 (hereinafter referred to as "COFEPOSA ACT" ). The Respondent Authorities have not been able to execute the Detention Order prior to, and even after filing of the present writ petition. The Petitioner has, thus, not yet been served with either the Detention Order, or the Grounds of Detention, or the Relied upon Documents.

(2.) On the night of 1st February, 2019, on the basis of certain specific intelligence that items, such as drones, gold and cigarettes would be smuggled in commercial quantities, one Mr. Gaganjot Singh and one Mr. Gurpreet Singh were interrupted at the IGI Airport upon their arrival from overseas. Contraband items such as drones, foreign branded cigarettes etc were recovered from both of them. On being questioned about the items, Mr. Gaganjot Singh admitted that he along with Mr. Gurpreet had bought the items to sell in the Indian market and gain profits, and revealed that his brother (Petitioner herein) would also be arriving with other people via the connecting flight no. KU 381 from Kuwait to Delhi, smuggling similar contraband items into the Indian Territory. Consequently, on the intervening night of 01.02.19 and 02.02.19, at around 1:30 am, the Petitioner and certain other passengers, namely, Amarjeet Singh, Saurabh Chopra and Sumit Verma arrived at IGI Airport, from Dubai by Kuwait Airways flight No. KU381. While the Petitioner and other passengers were collecting their suitcases from the conveyer belt, the Petitioner was taken to Customs Arrival Hall at IGI Airport, New Delhi. A detailed examination of the bags belonging to the petitioner was conducted, from which the following items were recovered:

(3.) After effecting recoveries, a Panchnama was prepared and total value of Benson and Hedges cigarettes recovered from the Petitioner was Rs. 7,14,000/- (Seven Lakh Fourteen Thousand Rupees only). The total value of the recovered and seized goods from these four passengers was calculated to be Rs. 1,09,74,500/-.