PREM KISHORE RAJ Vs. DEPARTMENT OF HOME

JUDGEMENT

(1.) On 1st May 1996, Prem Kishore Raj ("Raj"), the Petitioner, arrived at the Sir Seewosagar Ramgoolam International Airport in the Republic of Mauritius on a flight from India. Twenty-one years old at the time, Raj was a young film actor and, he claims, had travelled to Mauritius for the shooting of a film. This was his first trip overseas.

(2.) When he disembarked, Raj was carrying a leather briefcase. A senior Customs Officer, one Mr. Caullychurn, noticed him and, at the customs inspection counter, remarked that the briefcase seemed abnormal. The Customs and Drug Unit carried out a search. When Caullychurn pierced the leather lining of Raj's briefcase with a pen, he noticed a brown substance on the pen's tip. He tore open the leather lining. There was plywood beneath. Removing this, he saw two rectangular plastic parcels. To a question from the Assistant Superintendent of Police present, Raj said he could not account for the presence of these parcels. The Chief Forensic Science Officer examined them. They were found to be 371.3 grams of heroin.

(3.) Later that day, Raj was taken to Villa Pointe aux Biches where, or so he is supposed to have said, a contact person was to meet him.