TMI Blog1969 (10) TMI 82X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... hna Niketan, 3rd Floor, Motta Mandir compound, were searched. Nainmal Punjaji Shah, who was a partner of the firm, was present and three silver bars were found in the premises. Incriminating documents were found concealed in a ledge outside a window of a room in the premises. 71 bars of silver were found in the godown of the firm which was in the ground floor of the building. A cursory scrutiny of the documents seized revealed, according to the prosecution, that the said Nainmal Punjaji Shah, with several others, was concerned in illegal transactions in foreign wrist watches, textiles, Metalic yarn, gold, etc., and these transactions ran into about ₹ 100 crores. ( 3. ) ON April 14, 1969, Nainmal Punjaji Shah was arrested. It is alleged by the prosecution that on that day Nainmal offered bribe to one Somers of Revenue Intelligence. This fact was, however, not mentioned in the application for remand filed on April 14, 1969. On this day the Additional Chief Presidency Magistrate remanded Nainmal to custody till April 28, 1969. On April 22, 1969, Nainmal applied for bail. This application was rejected by the Additional Chief Presidency Magistrate that very day. ( 4. ) IN th ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... hiding and was avoiding apprehension. On May 20, 1969, Ghamandiram and Phulchand were directed to be released on bail by Mr. Dhruv, Acting Chief Presidency Magistrate. A revision application was also filed by the State before the High Court. On May 22, 1969, the High Court dealt with the matter. Bhole, J., set aside the order of bail and remanded Nainmal to custody. He came to the conclusion that at that stage of the investigations the respondent Nainmal should be detained. The revision petition as regards Ghamandiram and Phulchand also succeeded. ( 9. ) On June 6, 1969, one alleged co-conspirator, J. G. Kothari, was arrested. On this day another remand application was made, and Nainmal was remanded to custody till June 20, 1969. ( 10. ) Another relevant fact on which the prosecution relied has relation with one Gopal Shivalkar. On April 9, 1969, 10, 054 watches were seized by the V. P. Road Police in a room in Fernandez building, Dr. Deshmukh Lane, and Ganpat Gopal Shivalkar was arrested. He was released on bail on April 10, 1969. He failed to be present on June 9, 1969, in Court in connection with the seizure of those watches. Warrants for his arrest were issued but he pres ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... The Chief Presidency Magistrate felt that the alleged financial resources could be utilised even by the respondents' relations and friends and this was not a good ground for keeping them in custody. Another ground which was urged was that the respondents were likely to abscond. It was suggested that it would be tempting for Nainmal to abscond because he would thus avoid various liabilities in respect of income tax, wealth tax and sales tax and he had ample resources abroad to live comfortably. The Chief presidency Magistrate felt that even if these liabilities be taken to exist the respondent Nainmal would have left the country sometime ago as there were some custom cases pending against him even before. We may mention at this stage that this has reference to the cases arising out of the following seizures. The first seizure, dated September 14/15, 1964, was of gold, watches, Indian and foreign currency valued at about ₹ 55 lakhs from the premises belonging to and under the control of the respondents in the building known as Shakti Sadan Bombay. The second seizure out of which a complaint was filed against Champalal, Pukhraj Rajaji and Mohan Lal was in respect of seizur ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... alf of the Customs authorities as follows : Nainmal was one of the principal conspirators in a conspiracy to smuggle prohibited goods including foreign exchange into and out of India and the conspiracy in question had wide ramifications over various places in India and abroad and covered a wide range of commodities like silver, foreign currency and foreign exchange and contraband goods such as watches, nylon and synthetic fabrics, cigarette lighters, etc. The seized documents included accounts of large quantity of watches and of the smuggling out of India of huge amounts of foreign exchange with a view to build up vast assets abroad which could be used for smuggling into India goods which yield a profit of 200 per cent. Those documents further reveal that a gigantic balance of about ₹ 67 crores in foreign exchange was built up by the respondents in the beginning of the year 1969. The documents reveal that between 12-4-1966 to 5-9-1968 on as many as 66 occasions silver of the value of ₹ 7 crores was smuggled out of India in launches and some of the documents reveal that during a single year 1967-68 silver worth about ₹ 1 1/2 crores was exported out of India in purs ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... the whole the High Court was of the view that there was no justification for the apprehension that if the respondents were released on bail they would further indulge in similar activities. The High Court then considered whether it was still necessary to detain the respondents in the interest of smooth and efficient investigation of this somewhat extraordinary case. The High Court observed : Having regard to the nature of the case and the difficulties which must naturally arise in investigation of this kind, it seems to me that there is some justification for Mr. Porus Mehta's contention that it would not be advisable to set the respondents at liberty before at least the crucial stage of the investigation is over. Mr. Porus Mehta has urged that some important investigation still remains to be made and remain to be carried out. Mr. Porus Mehta undertakes to file the complaint against these respondents before the expiry of six months from today. On the other hand, Mr. Peerbhoy points out that enough time was already granted to the prosecution to carry out this important investigation during the past two or three months. That no doubt is true, but some further time is, in m ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
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