GOPAL CHAND KHANDELWAL Vs. UNION OF INDIA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The petitioner through the present writ petition under Article 226 of the Constitution of India wants to challenge his detention order F. No. 6731409191-Cua.- 7 dated 30-10-1991 passed by respondent No. I under Section 3(1) of the COFEPOSA Act.

(2.) Brief facts which led to the present petition are as under : that the petitioner is absolutely innocent and has been falsely implicated in the present case by the officers of Directorate of Revenue Intelligence. The officers of the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence noticed a white Ambassador car on 3-10-1991 in Chandni Chowk bearing No. DIB-3762 which had just stopped near Town Hall, Police Station. They intercepted the same alongwith its two occupants, i.e., Gopal Chand Khandelwal and Surinder Kumar Sharma. On search of the said car a brief case was found therein. It was found to contain 195 foreign marked gold biscuits weighing 10 tolas' each. The petitioner was forced to make a statement under Section 108 of the Customs Act incriminating himself on being beaten and tortured. The petitioner restricted the said statement and moved an application to that effect before the Court of ACMM, New Delhi on 4-10-1991. The petitioner was produced before the Court of ACMM, New Delhi on 4-10-1991 and remanded to judicial custody. Subsequently, the petitioner sent a detailed retraction statement from Central Jail, Tihar to the court of ACMM. New Delhi on 10-10-1991. Detention order against the petitioner was passed on 30th October, 1992. The petitioner made a representation against his impugned detention order dated 13-11-1991. The respondent No. 2 without applying his mind to the said retraction rejected the same. They failed to consider certain very relevant and material documents such as retraction statements. medical report, order dated 4-10-1991 passed by ACMM. New Delhi. Hence, arose the necessity for the presentation of the present writ petition.

(3.) The respondents have opposed the petition through a counter affidavit sworn by one Mahinder Prasad, Joint Secretary, Ministry of Finance. According to the respondents the present writ petition is absolutely false and frivolous. The petitioner was in fact intercepted by the officers of Directorate of Revenue Intelligence on 30-10-1991 alongwith Shri Surinder Kumar Sharma, while he was transporting 195 foreign marked gold biscuits in an Ambassador Car No. DIB 3762. The petitioner made a voluntary statement on 3-10-1991 and 4-10-1991. Neither a retraction had been received from the petitioner nor any medical report was received in respect of the petitioner from the jail. It is wrong and false that the petitioner was ever beaten and tortured to make a statement under Section 108 of the Customs Act. In fact the said statement is voluntary. The detaining authority considered all the relevant documents and material at the time of making the impugned detention order dated October 30, 1991. The present petition is false and frivolous and is thus liable to be dismissed.