The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Chennai News : Detention under Goondas Act upheld by court

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Jul 19, 2006

Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

Detention under Goondas Act upheld by court

Special Correspondent

Purpose of detention orders is intended to be preventive: High Court

CHENNAI : The detention of a COFEPOSA offender and an immoral trafficking offender under the provisions of the Goondas Act has been upheld by the Madras High Court.

In separate orders, a Division Bench comprising Justice P. Sathasivam and Justice V. Dhanapalan declined to interfere with the detention of K. Gunasekar who flouted the Conservation of Foreign Exchange and Prevention of Smuggling Activities Act, and Thanumalai alias Ajaykumar, who "procured" girls from different States and forced them into prostitution.

Officers of the Air Cargo Intelligence Unit in Chennai found Mr. Gunasekar misdeclaring a cargo as "leather shoe uppers for adults" and inflating the value to claim the duty drawback worth several lakh rupees.

According to them, he played a vital role in floating several proprietary concerns and firms in his name and that of his associates and employees to claim duty drawback benefits fraudulently by exporting substandard, junk and unusable goods having no definite commercial value by misdeclaring the actual contents, quantity and value.

Convinced that fraudulent attempts were made by the detenu to claim ineligible duty drawback benefits, the Bench said "we are satisfied that all the relevant records/materials were placed before the detaining authority and that those materials were also supplied to the detenu... It is settled law that merely because some statements have been made and details of certain records were referred to, the same need not be supplied to the detenu."

The Judges further said that the object of prosecution of a person in criminal court was punitive and the purpose of passing orders of detention is intended to be preventive.

"In the criminal court, the burden is placed on the prosecution to establish the guilt of an accused beyond reasonable doubt, whereas, the detaining authority can act on the subjective satisfaction of the materials, and pass orders in order to prevent the activities prejudicial to the community in general, of the persons to be detained."

Immoral traffic

In the other order, the Bench dismissed a habeas corpus petition seeking the release of an immoral trafficking offender, contending that there was no flaw in the detaining authority's conclusion that the detenu would cause danger to the society by inducing young girls into prostitution.

The authority arrived at a subjective satisfaction that the detenu's activities would be prejudicial to the maintenance of public health and order, the Bench said, adding: "The grounds [of detention] also disclose that the public wrote letters to the police to take action against offenders who are spoiling the life of young boys and girls, which would spread sexual diseases in an epidemic proportion."

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