- (1.) This application under Section 401 and 482 of the Cr. P. C. read with Article 227 of the Constitution of India on behalf of 20 petitioners of whom the petitioner No. 1 is the captain, petitioner No. 2 the second captain, petitioner No. 3 is the Engineer and petitioner Nos. 4 to 20 are the members of the crew of the Fishing Trawler Champen Mahachai 24 a foreign vessel of Thailand is heard as "a contested application" with C. R. R. 1278 of 1998 as per order dated 12.6.98 in C. R. R. 1278 of 1998 of His Lordship the Hon'ble Justice Vidyanand as His Lordship then was directed for quashing the proceeding being B. G. R. 3147/97 now pending before the Ld. S. D. J. M. Tamluk in which cognizance has been taken by the Ld. S. D. J. M. Tamluk and charge-sheet has been filed in the case arising out of Gosaba P. S. Case No. 50(7) 97 dated 26.7.97 under Sections. 447/379/120B/500 of the I. P. C. Section 26 of the Indian Forest Act and Section 6(i)(a) of Indian Telegraph Act and Sections 10/11/12 of Maritime Zones of India (Regulation of Fishing by Foreign Vessels) Act 1981, registered on the written F. I. R. lodged at Gosaba Police Station by the Additional Superintendent of Police (South-Rural), District South 24 Parganas, West Bengal. The facts of the case, as transpire from the relevant case-diary, produced by Mr. Sudipta Maitra the Ld. Additional Prosecutor, before this Court are as follows:-
(2.) On secret information that a number of foreign trawlers had entered the riverine zone in the Sunderban (Forest) area near Bay of Bengal and were engaged in clandestine activities and illegal fishing within Indian Territory, those trawlers were spotted at the north of Mayadwip Island and raid was conducted by a police team under direct supervision of the Additional Superintendent of Police (Rural) and other high officials of the Department of Police, RAF, B. S. F. , Administration, and others on 23.7.97 at the north of Mayadwip Island.
(3.) On notice of the aforesaid raiding party, the trawlers tried to escape and two trawlers made good their escape and five trawlers were surrounded effectively and seized. These five foreign trawlers were (1) Chanpen Mahachai 60 (2) Chanpen Mahachai 24 (3) Chanpen Mahachai 49 (4) Chanpen Mahachai 35 and (5) Chokakamolonova 107. It was also found that there were 139 crew members in those five trawlers and among them 135 crew members were Thailand nationals, one Myanamar national and 3 Indian nationals. On searching the trawlers, huge cache of fish were found stored in each of the trawlers preserved in deep freeze and large numbers of electronic Gadgetory viz. Radar equipments, TV/VCP, wireless sets being used to communicate with their headquarters at Thiland. On being asked the captains/staffs-in-charge of those trawlers could not offer any satisfactory explanation for their presence in the Indian territorial water and in particular within the core area of Sunderban forest. On demand they also could not produce requisite document for fishing within the Indian territorial water. Accordingly all the aforesaid crew members were arrested and all the five trawlers with the aforesaid crew members were brought to Namkhana Ghat in the afternoon of 25.7.97 and the said F. I. R. was lodged at Gosaba Police Station and 129 crew members were forwarded to Court leaving 10 persons for maintaining the trawlers with permission from court. Subsequently five more Thailand nationals could be detected from Chanpan Mahachai 60 during through search.;