S ARUMUGA DEVAR Vs. STATE OF TAMIL NADU

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Petitioner, the father of one Thiru. Sankarapandi, hereinafter referred to as the detenu, has filed the above Habeas Corpus Petition. The detenu had been branded as 'Goonda' and an order of detention had been passed against him by the second respondent on 10.5.2002 under Section 3(1) of Tamil Nadu Act 14 of 1982. The H.C.P. is filed against this order.

(2.) The detenu was involved in a criminal case in Tiruppur North Police Station Crime No.316 of 2992 dated 21.2.2002 registered under Sections 120(b), 341, 342, 347, 365, 368, 307, 396, 397, 506(ii) read with 34 I.P.C. As per the said case, the detenu, along with his associates, at the instigation of one Chinnasamy, threatened one Thiru. Muthuvel @ Kumar by placing a knife on his neck and forcing him to take brandy mixed with tablets and when he was in an intoxicated condition, further threatened him that he would be taken to Chennai, confined there and killed by pouring petrol on him and thereby, he had extracted a sum of Rs.20 lakhs from the victim and also threatened that if he informed about this incident to the police, he and his family members would be killed. The said case is under investigation.

(3.) While so, the detenu is alleged to have been involved in the ground case, the facts of which case are stated hereunder :- The complainant Thiru. V. Palanisamy is the owner of a number of business establishments at Tiruppur under the name and style of 'J.V. Group Companies' and he is having a spinning mill in the name and style of 'Jayavarma Textiles Private Limited' at Ketticheviyur. According to the complainant, on 6.2.2002, while he was returning to Tiruppur from the textile mill at about 1900 hours in his Lancer car bearing Registration No.TN-39-X-5455, about three kilometers away from his textile mill, he received a cellphone call from his elder brother and as he could not get a clear connection, he halted his car, got down from the car and was talking over the cellphone. At that time, a TATA SUMO Jeep came from north to south on that road, overtook his car and after crossing some distance, returned back towards his car, crossed his car and then came on reverse and parked it in such a way as touching his car. When Palanisamy instructed his driver to take the car as the jeep was about to dash against his car, six persons got down from the jeep and at the same time, another jeep came from south to north on the road and parked it across the road in front of his car which was about to start. All these persons joined together and dragged the driver from the car and forced him to the rear of his car. They occupied his car, the complainant was placed between them and after turning on the C.D. Player on high volume, they sped the car towards the south. He was blind-folded and the vehicle travelled for nearly three hours and at about 10 pm, he was taken to a thatched shed. There, they removed the cloth from his eyes and a person from the gang instructed the complainant to contact his house over his cellphone and inform them that he had gone to Coimbatore for business purpose and that he would come the next morning and accordingly, he informed his wife the same. The gang members informed the complainant that they were members of L.T.T.E. and that they want to extract money from rich people like him and they threatened him to give a cash of Rs.10 crores. They manhandled the complainant's driver in his presence and threatened him that he would also be treated in the same manner if he fails to co-operate with them. One of the gang members tied a belt around the complainant's hip and pointed out that the belt contained a bomb and that it would explode within a short time. He could hear an alarm sounding 'tick, tick, ...' from the belt.