DHARANEESH RAJU SHETTY Vs. UNION OF INDIA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) These writ petitions have been preferred by two detenues, who stand detained under the Conservation of Foreign Exchange and Prevention of Smuggling Activities Act , 1974 (COFEPOSA Act ) by the Detaining Authority vide detention orders - both dated 03.04.2018, passed under Section 3 of the COFEPOSA Act. Whereas the petitioner in W.P. (Crl.) No. 1270/2018, Dharaneesh Raju Shetty was detained on 14.04.2018, the petitioner in W.P. (Crl.) No. 1277/2018, Sahil Mohd Zafar was detained on 09.04.2018.

(2.) The challenge to the detention of these petitioners is premised on a very narrow compass. Undisputedly, the Detaining Authority while detaining these petitioners supplied the Relied Upon Documents (RUD), out of which the documents at Sl. Nos.12 and 69 - in both the cases, are soft copies of documents contained in Compact Disks (CDs). The document relied upon at Sl. No.12 in the RUD in both the cases are the Whatsapp conversation taken from the mobile phone of one Sh. Krishan Nayak during recording of his statement on 30.12.2017 under Section 108 of the Customs Act contained in a CD (described as CD-1). At Sl. No.69 of the RUD, in both the cases, Call Detail Records (CDRs) obtained from service providers are listed, which are contained in 2 CDs (described as CD-2).

(3.) The submission of the petitioners is that they have merely been provided the soft copies of these documents on CDs, without the relevant hardware to read the said CDs i.e. either a CD player, or a desktop computer, or a laptop.