SWAMY PREMANANDA Vs. ENFORCEMENT OFFICER

JUDGEMENT

(1.) These petitions have been filed to quash the proceedings in C.C. Nos. 114, 115, 116 and 117 of 2001 pending on the file of the Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate, Economic Offences, Egmore, Chennai.

(2.) The petitioner is the first accused in all the above calendar cases and the proceedings against him came to be initiated under Section 8(1) of the Foreign Exchange Regulation Act, 1973 read with Section 56(1)(i) of the Foreign Exchange Regulation Act, 1973 (in short the Act) on an allegation that he was found in possession of foreign currencies viz., Swiss Francs, US Dollars and UK Pounds which in Indian currency is valued at more than Rs. 70 lakhs. The petitioner was arrested initially on 19-11-1994 for an offence of murder and rape in an ashram which he was running. Later the above foreign currencies were recovered from the ashram on 23-11-1994. It is also admitted that the petitioner had been convicted and sentenced to imprisonment for life and the said conviction and sentence was also confirmed by this Court. In the mean-time, the above calendar cases came to be initiated against him for possession of the foreign currencies, as he was in possession of the foreign currencies without the special permission of the Reserve Bank of India.

(3.) Learned counsel for the petitioner submits that there is no material to connect the petitioner with the recovery, as he was in judicial custody during the relevant period, and they were recovered from the ashram only on the basis of a statement given by the second accused in the case to the police and therefore, the recovery cannot be connected to the petitioner for him to be prosecuted under Section 8(1) read with Section 56(1)(i) of the Act.