TRIJUGI NATH AGARWAL Vs. STATE OF BIHAR

JUDGEMENT

(1.) By this application under Articles 226 and 227 of the Constitution of India, the petitioner has challenged his detention order dated 29.7.1984 passed under Sub- (1) (ii) of Section 3 of the Conservation of Foreign Exchange and Prevention of Smuggling Activities Act (in short 'the COFEPOSA Act') as contained in Annexure-1 appended to this appliction and has prayed for issuance of a writ of habeas corpus for his release.

(2.) The facts relevant for disposal of this application, in short, are that on receipt of secret information Customs Preventive Party, Patna reached Patna Junction railway station in the night of 8th/9th February, 1984 and at about 00.30 hours apprehended two persons while they were coming out of 2nd class booking counter after purchasing tickets for Allahabad. The apprehended persons disclosed their identity as one Chandra Shekhar Choudhary son of late Sukhdeo Choudhary of Mohalla Saraiya Ganj in the district of Muzaffarpur and the other as Prabhu Prasad son of Shri Jhakhar Sah of village Jamundhar, P.O. Oraiyan in the district of East Champaran. In course of checking, smuggled Chinese solid gold pieces were recovered from special cavities in the heels of the slippers of both the afore-mentioned apprehended persons and from the special cavities in the brief-case of the said Chandra Shekhar Choudhary. As it was very odd time (00.30 hours) and the place of detention was railway station, the party did not think it safe for detail search and as such the apprehended persons alongwith their belongings were brought to the Central Revenue Building, Patna where thorough search was made in presence of two independent witnesses. On detail search, in all 16 pieces of smuggled Chinese primary gold weighing 1498.5 grams valued at Rs. 2,67,730.00 were recovered from their possession. No paper in support of illicit importation of foreign gold into India could be produced by the afore-mentioned persons. Hence the recovered gold was seized after observing all necessary formalities. The aforesaid apprehended persons after interrogation were produced before the Chief Judicial Magistrate, Patna who remanded them to jail custody. Subsequently, they were released on bail.

(3.) Both the afore-mentioned apprehended persons in their statements dated 9.2.1984 confessed their guilt and stated that they reached Patna junction from Muzaf-farpur in the evening of 8th February, 1984 and they were to proceed for Allahabad by Assam Mail but were intercepted by the Customs officials as soon as they came out after purchasing tickets from the booking counter. In their statements, both of them stated that they were carrying the recovered gold from the petitioner of Chatta Bazar, Muzaf-farpur to one Sri Anil Kumar of Pandariya, Allahabad. They also disclosed in their statements that they were employees of the petitioner who has one licenced gold/silver shop under the name and style of M/s. Sanjay Kumar Vivek Kumar Agarwal situate at Chat-ta Bazar, Muzaffarpur. According to their statements, the financier and owner of the seized gold was the petitioner who indulges in such illicit business after smuggling foreign gold from Nepal.