KHUSHBU SANDEEP JAIN Vs. STATE OF MAHARASHTRA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) These Petitions, under Article 226 of the Constitution of India, seek to challenge orders of detention passed against two detenus under Section 3(1) of the COFEPOSA Act, 1974. The Petitioners had earlier filed writ petitions before this Court, being Criminal Writ Petition No. 3499 of 2013 and Writ Petition No. 3436 of 2013, challenging the validity of the orders of detention. These Petitions were rejected by this Court after hearing the Petitioners and the detaining authority. The present Petitions are on the footing that they raise fresh and new grounds of attack against the orders of detention and that successive petitions on such fresh and new grounds are not barred on the principles of res judicata or constructive res judicata and ought to be decided on their own merits.

(2.) Writ Petition No. 506 of 2014 concerns the detenu, Sandeep Jayantilal Jain ("Sandeep"), and is filed by his wife, whereas Writ Petition No. 970 of 2014 concerns Jayant Rikhabchand Mehta ("Jayant") and is filed by his mother. The orders of detention in cases of both the detenus have been passed under Clause (ii) of Sub-section (1) of Section 3 of the COFEPOSA Act, i.e. with a view to prevent the detenus from abetting smuggling activities in future.

(3.) The case of the detaining authority against the detenus is this: On specific intelligence received in that behalf, one Sagar Chheda, arriving from Dubai by flight at Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport at Mumbai, and Uday Singh Meena, Sub-Inspector of CISE were apprehended at the Airport on 10 August 2012 in connection with smuggling of gold. A bag containing 5.804 kgs of gold jewellery and gold bars of an estimated value of Rs. 1.60 crores was found with Uday Singh Meena. Sagar Chheda, apprehended on the same day, was found to be carrying an identical bag. Next morning, i.e. on 11 August 2012, one more passenger Atul Mangilal Bafna, who arrived at the Mumbai Airport from Dubai, was apprehended with the same make of bag containing 4.717 kgs of gold jewellery. After investigations, the authorities claimed to have busted a smuggling racket with Sandeep as the kingpin of the syndicate and Jayant as a co- conspirator for smuggling of gold bars / gold jewellery from Dubai. Sandeep was found to be the financier of the smuggling activities, sending money through illegal channels, visiting Dubai and purchasing gold for carrying the same through his carriers. The carriers, who included Sagar Chheda, Jayant and others, would carry the contraband in bags of specified makes from Dubai to Mumbai and then exchange the same with identical bags with a CISF Officer (Uday Singh Meena, in the incident referred to above) who would clear the same through the staff gate. The syndicate was claimed to have smuggled around 120 to 140 kgs of gold bars / gold jewellery through this device over the last six months, i.e. from February 2012. All the Accused connected with the syndicate were apprehended and their statements recorded under Section 108 of the Customs Act, 1962.