BABU BHAI Vs. UNION OF INDIA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) BY these petitions filed under Article 226 of the Constitution of India, petitioner Babu Bhai, who is the brother of detenues Mool Chand and Chhagan Bhai, has assailed the orders of their detention dated 10.1.94 (Ann.4) passed under Section 3 of the Conservation of Foreign Exchange and Prevention of Smuggling Activities Act, 1974 (in short, "COFEPOSA Act") issued by Shri Mahendra Prasad, Joint Secretary, Ministry of Finance, Department of Revenue, New Delhi.

(2.) THE facts set out in the grounds of detention (Ann. 6) can be re - capitulated within a narrow compass like this. During the course of "Nakabandi" conducted by the officers of the Customs, Jodhpur at a point 14 Kms. from Pali on Pali -Ahmedabad route in the night of June 1& 2, 1993 a Mahendra jeep of Registration No. CJ -8 -1187 was intercepted. One Ganesh Bhai was driving the said jeep while by his side, Mool Chand detenue was sitting. The said vehicle was searched and from a secret cavity between the driver's seat and the middle seat 50 (fifty) Foreign Marked Gold Biscuits wrapped in insulated adhesive tape were recovered. The occupants of the jeep could not produce any oral and documentary evidence regarding legal import/acquisition/possession/custody/control of those recovered Foreign Marked Gold Biscuits, which were seized under Section 110 of the Customs Act, 1962. Those Foreign Marked Gold Biscuits were of 99.9% purity, weighed 5,388.600 gms. valued at Rs. 27,00,889/ - (Rupees twenty seven lacs and eight hundred and eighty nine only).

(3.) IT is alleged that detenue Mool Chand in his voluntary statements dated 2nd and 3rd June, 1993 recorded under Section 108 of the Customs Act, admitted the recovery of those 50 FM Gold Biscuits from the said jeep and stated that those Gold Biscuits were given to him by his brother Chhagan Bhai (detenue) on 1st June, 1993 for transporting those to Ajmer and for handing them over to one Ashok, who was to be contacted on a given telephone number on reaching Ajmer. He further admitted that the said consignment was delivered to Chhagan Bhai (detenue) on 1st June, 1993 by one Mahesh of Bombay. He admitted that he had no documents regarding the illicit import of those FM Gold Biscuits. Mool Chand informed that the said jeep belonged to one Ganesh Bhai, who had contacted to sell the same to Chhagan Bhai and that at the instance of the latter, a special cavity was got built for transporting the contraband articles.