SUNDARI Vs. STATE OF TAMIL NADU

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Petitioner, the wife of one Thiru. Chinnasamy, 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 6.5.2002 under Section 3(1) of Tamil Nadu Act 14 of 1982. The H.C.P. is filed against this order.

(2.) The detenu was found to have been involved in the manufacture of spurious liquor, forgery and counterfeit of trade mark labels of various distilleries and lending of "Phenobarbitone" Tablets in Tiruppur Prohibition Enforcement Wing Crime No.1116 of 1989 dated 26.8.1989 registered under Sections 4(1-A)(ii), 4(1)(a)(b)(f)(g)(h)(i)(k) and 7 of the Tamil Nadu Prohibition Act, 1937 and Sections 420, 465, 467, 468, 483, 485, 486 read with 109 of the Indian Penal Code. In the second case in Namakkal Prohibition Enforcement Wing Crime No.778 of 1999 dated 21.4.1999 registered under Sections 7, 4(1)(aaa), 5 and 11 of the Tamil Nadu Prohibition Act, 1937 read with Tamil Nadu Rectified Spirit Rules, 1959, the detenu is alleged to have transported 10,735 litres of Rectified Spirit in two lorries from Tamil Nadu to Kerala. In the third 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., he had illegally confined one Thiru. Muthuvel @ Kumar. The first two cases are pending trial and the third case is under investigation. While so, the detenu is alleged to have abducted, wrongfully confined and extracted a sum of Rs.35 lakhs from one Palanisamy, and on the basis of the complaint of the said victim dated 9.2.2002, a case was registered in Nambiyur Police Station Crime No.22 of 2002 under Sections 364 and 397 I.P.C.

(3.) The facts relating to the ground 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.