LEO ROY FREY Vs. R PRASAD

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THIS petition under Section 3 of the Contempt of Courts Act raises the question whether the respondents have published matter which is intended or reasonably calculated to prejudice the fair trial of a criminal case.

(2.) THE petitioner in this case is one Mr. Leo Roy Frey, an American stock broker, while the respondents are the Editor, Printer and Publisher of the Statesman and the Editor, Printer and Publisher of the Tribune.

(3.) ON 23-6-1957 Mr. Dana, a citizen of Cuba and Mr. Frey, a citizen of California, who were travelling to Pakistan in a luxury American car, presented themselves at the Attari Road Land Customs Station for completing the customs formalities. They filled in the baggage declaration forms which were handed over to them. Mr. Frey's declaration form was found to be correct in all particulars except only that he had omitted to declare a. 28 revolver which was recovered from his possession. Mr. Dana's form was not found to be correct, for a search of the car in which these two passengers were travelling revealed the presence of a secret chamber above the petrol tank which contained Indian currency of the value of Rs. 8,50,000/-and united States currency of the value of 10,000 dollars. As neither of the two passengers could produce the necessary permission from the Reserve Bank of india for the export of so large a sum of money from the country, the Customs officials took the currency as well as the pistol and the cartridges into possession. The documents seized in connection with this case appeared to indicate that one moshe Baruk was a party to this conspiracy to smuggle the aforesaid currency out of India.