New Delhi: The Supreme Court has upheld a preventive detention order against AIADMK Member of Parliament T.T.V.Dinakaran for violation of the provisions of the Foreign Exchange Regulation Act (FERA).

Passed

It was passed in February 1996 under the Conservation of Foreign Exchange and Prevention of Smuggling Activities (COFEPOSA) Act.

A Bench comprising Justice K.G.Balakrishnan and Justice B.N.Srikrishna dismissed an appeal preferred by Mr.Dinakaran's wife D.Anuradha, challenging a Madras High Court judgment affirming the detention order.

Allegations

Mr.Justice Balakrishnan, writing the judgment, said: "The allegations made against the detenu are of serious nature.

It involves several crores of rupees. The various transactions were done in a clandestine manner with the help of foreign nationals and the detenu himself had claimed to be a Non-Resident Indian."

NRI status

On Mr.Dinakaran's contention that he was an NRI and, therefore, the detention order could not have been passed, the Bench said the High Court had considered the issue and held he was not an NRI.

"... The order of detention was rightly passed and we find no reason to interfere with the impugned judgment."

Contention

About the contention that there had been delay in disposal of the representations, the Bench said if it had been reasonably explained, that by itself would not be sufficient to hold that the detention was bad and illegal.

Deposited

The Enforcement Directorate had alleged that 21 cheques involving $1,04,93,313 were deposited in the account of Dipper Investments in Barclays Bank, Sutton, United Kingdom, and that the detenu was engaged in transactions violating the FERA provisions.

The preventive detention order was passed on February 5, 1996 and executed on February 7, 1996.

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