R.R.YADAV, J. - (1.) By this Habeas Corpus Writ Petition under Art. 226 of the Constitution of India, the petitioner detenu Noor Mohammed Wali Bhai Tajwala calls in question his detention order dated 16-9-93 passed by the Joint Secretary to the Government of India under Sec. 3(1) of the Conservation of Foreign Exchange and Prevention of Smuggling Activities Act, 1974 (hereinafter referred to as 'the COFEPOSA ACT').
(2.) Facts relating to the detention of the petitioner as given in the grounds of detention accompanying the impugned detention order dated 16-9-93 (Annx. 1) are as under :- (i) In pursuance of prior information, the police and Customs Officers of Pali held a joint Nakabandi on the intervening night of 26/ 27/09/1992 on Pali-Sumerpur Road near River 'Bandi'. During this Naka-bandi, they intercepted one Maruti Van No. GJ. 1K -1744 and during the search of the said van on the spot, it was noticed that under the rear side of back seat of the Van 8 Jute bags (Neolies) were found containing slabs of silver. The two occupants of the said vehicle disclosed their names as Ayyub Khan s/o Sujja Mohammed r/o Palanpur and Mohammed Iliyas s/o Mohammed Idris r/o Mehsana and requested the Naka-party to take them to a safer place for search of the vehicle. The Nakaparty brought the vehicle along with the said occupants to the police station, Pali and conducted a thorough search of the said vehicle in the presence of two independent witnesses and the said occupants of the vehicle and recovered 294 slabs of silver weighing 252.177 kgs. of silver valued at Rs. 17 88,844.00. On demand of the said occupants Ayyub Khan and Mohammed Iliyas could not produce any evidence documentary or otherwise regarding illicit possession/receipt/transportation/purchase/import of the said recovered silver. On interrogation at the spot of recovery, Ayyub Khan stated that the said silver was smuggled silver. Therefore, the Custom Officers seized the silver, Maruti Van and packing material under Sec. 110 of the Customs Act, 1962 under a reasonable belief that it was liable to be confiscated under the provisions of the Customs Act, 1962, a proper Panchnama was prepared for the said purpose. (ii) The statements of Ayyub Khan were recorded on 27/ 28/09/1992 under Sec. 108 of the Customs Act, 1962. In his statements, he admitted the recovery and seizure of the said silver as per panchnama. Similarly, the statements of Mohammed Iliyas were also recorded on 27/ 28/09/1992 under Sec. 108 of the Customs Act, 1962. In his statements, he admitted the recovery and seizure of the said silver slabs from the Maruti Van No. GJ-1 K-1744. (iii) During further investigation in the case, statements of Labh Chand Gulecha, Lalji Kanji Bhai Soni r/o Ahmedabad, Rikhab Chand Jain and petitioner Noor Mohammed were recorded under Sec. 108 of the Customs Act, 1962. As a result of the investigation and enquiries conducted in this case the involment of the petitioner engaging in concealing and keeping the smuggled goods was found and with a view to prevent the petitioner from engaging in concealing and keeping the smuggled goods in future, it was found necessary by the detaining authority to pass the impugned detention order. In order to maintain brevity, detail grounds given in Annx. 4 for detaining the petitioner are being omitted, which can be verified from Annx. 4 itself.
(3.) Feeling aggrieved against the impugned detention order, the petitioner has preferred the instant writ petition and prayed for quashing of the impugned detention order Annx. 1 to the writ petition as well as order dated 27-4-94 Annx. 6 to the writ petition by which after consideration of the case of the petitioner, the Advisory Board, was of the opinion that there was sufficient cause for detention of the petitioner hence he was ordered to be detained in the custody for a period of one year from the date of his detention i.e. from 4-2-1994.;