Cofeposa detention upheld

LUCKNOW: The high court here, on Friday, while upholding the detention of Ranjeet Singh Vaish under the Conservation of Foreign Exchange and Prevention of Smuggling Activities (Cofeposa) Act as being part of a syndicate involved in smuggling goods from Nepal to India, confirmed his detention for one year.
The bench, comprising Justice Vishnu Sahai and Justice KS Rakhara, dismissed the habeas corpus petition filed on behalf of the detenue against his detention order passed on September 3, 2002 by the state government.
The court took into account the statement of the detenue admitting that on seven or eight occasions in the past few months he had committed smuggling and that there was a syndicate of three persons namely Omi, Sheetal and Gulshan, which was getting smuggling done through the detenue and for each trip he was paid Rs 1500.
The high court, on the question of the propensity and potentiality of the detenue to commit similar prejudicial acts, observed that there could be no dispute that the past conduct and antecedental history should be proximate in point of time and should have a rational connection with the conclusion that the detention of a person was necessary.
The Directorate of Revenue intelligence on March 20, 2002 had received information that at about 8 am truck No. SHR 38/G-1041 would proceed from Sampurna Nagar Palia on Shahjahanpur Puwaya road for Delhi with smuggled goods. The truck was stopped and from secret chamber 27 packets of Vitamin-B1, Doxicycline powder and 19 packets of compressor worth RS 9,94,000 were recovered. Ranjeet Singh, a resident of Gwalior, MP was driving the truck with cleaner Ramesh Batham. Both had admitted that the said articles were smuggled from Nepal to India without import licence. On the basis of this incident, detention order under Cofeposa was passed against both.
The validity of the detention was challenged mainly on the ground that the incident took place on March 20, 2002 and the detention order was passed on September 3, 2002 and was executed after a long delay.
The bench, while considering the delay aspect, observed that “where the delay in issuance/execution of detention order is not satisfactorily explained while the propensity and potentiality of the detenue to commit prejudicial acts is so firmly entrenched that it would not have withered with passage of time, the detention order would not be vitiated on the vice of delay.�
This bench, however, set aside the detention of co-accused Ramesh Batham, cleaner of the truck, detained under Cofeposa along with Ranjeet Singh Vaish and ordered his release forthwith unless wanted in some other case.