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1987 (12) TMI 53

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..... iefly are: On 29.9.1987, the respondent alighted at the International Airport at Madras from Singapore and was found to have concealed in a medical belt tied around his waist 20 gold bars of foreign origin, totally weighing 200 tolas valued at Rs.7,38,610/-. The respondent had no valid permit or authority to carry the gold. The gold bars were seized under a mahazar in the presence of independent witnesses. He was examined and in the statement made by him, he had stated that he bought the gold bars at Singapore out of his own money and brought them to India by concealing them on his person and that he wanted to sell them in India on profit. A case was registered against him for an offence under Sec. 135 of the Customs Act. In a separate statement made on the next day, the respondent has stated that the gold bars were given to him, by somebody at Singapore, to be delivered at Madras for a monetary remuneration of Rs. 4000/- and that he did not know the name of the person who gave him the gold bars at Singapore or the person to whom the bars had to be delivered. The respondent was arrested and remanded to judicial custody. The respondent filed Crl. M.P. No. 695 of 1987 before the Addi .....

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..... uld be set aside. Learned Counsel relied on certain decisions, which I shall refer to later. 7. Per contra, Thiru K. Srinivasan, Learned Counsel for the respondent, contended that the present application itself was not maintainable since the respondent had not yet come out on bail and therefore, no violation of condition of bail could be put forward by the petitioner, that the order of the learned Magistrate showed that he had questioned the respondent and was satisfied that the respondent would not abscond and that no discrimination can be made against foreign nationals, even in the matter of bail. 8. Countering the above contentions, learned Standing Counsel for Customs, relied on certain decisions of the Supreme Court laying down the principles to be followed in such matters and also contended, that even in the counter filed by the respondent to this application, he had not given any reference about persons in India with whom he could claim association and the vague averment in the counter that the respondent has got a lot of business connection in Madras City, is devoid of any details, which the petitioner could check up and this clearly indicated that the respondent has ab .....

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..... principles. Even if the case on hand is a case for rejecting bail, this court will not be justified in interfering with the exercise of the discretion by the learned Magistrate in favour of the accused, unless the order is shown to suffer from some infirmity, which, compelling necessity, in the interests of justice, would require its reversal. 12. In fact in Gurcharan Singh v. Slate (Delhi Administration) (A.I.R. 1978 S.C.179) the Supreme Court, while considering the correctness of the order of the Delhi High Court cancelling the bail, granted to the accused by the Sessions Judge, Delhi, posed the question as follows: "In the present case the Sessions Judge, having admitted the appellants to bail, by recording his reasons, we will have to see whether that order was vitiated by any serious infirmity, for which it was right and proper for the High Court, in the interests of justice, to interfere with his discretion in granting the bail." It is in the above spirit that the order of the learned Magistrate is now being scrutinised by this Court. 13. Upon the following decisions of the Supreme Court reliance was placed, both by the Standing Counsel for Customs and the learned Cou .....

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..... his trial and whether he is likely to abuse the discretion granted in his favour by tampering with evidence." 16. It, therefore, follows that one of the major factors on which the court should give anxious considerations when admitting bail, is the possibility of the accused fleeing from justice. In the case of nationals of the same country, the possibility of their leaving the country is comparatively more remote, than in the case of foreign nationals. If a foreign national succeeds in leaving the country through some illicit channel, rearresting him and bringing him back to face trial, is almost an impossibility. In such cases, it would be no adequate safeguard to require execution of bonds with sureties. However high the bond amount may be, in economic offences, like the one on hand, any amount would be a cheap price, to secure one's freedom or liberty. 17. Testing the impugned order on the basis of the principles enunciated above, we find that the offence committed by the respondent is a grave one. 20 gold bars of foreign origin were found concealed on his very person. The respondent had made two statements and in both of them, he had not denied that he had carried the gold .....

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