The High Court of Karnataka has upheld the detention of a businessman under the provisions of the Conservation of Foreign Exchange and Prevention of Smuggling Activities Act, 1974 to prevent him from further indulging in smuggling, abetting smuggling and dealing with smuggled goods through shell companies.
A Division Bench comprising Justice Alok Aradhe and Justice M.G.S. Kamal passed the order whileupholding detention of Gurmeet Singh Kohli by the Central Economic Intelligence Bureau.
“From the order of detention, it is evident that the detenu has propensity and potentiality to engage in the offences and despite service of summons has indulged in commission of offences,” the Bench observed while dismissing a habeas corpus writ petition filed by the detenu’s daughter.
The detenu has played a key role in smuggling goods into the country and has caused severe harm to the exchequer, Madhukar Deshpande, advocate for the Bureau had contended while referring to various proceedings initiated against him by different statutory authorities for violation of law.
The Bureau has alleged that Gurmeet Singh Kohli is an important member and mastermind of a ‘well-organised smuggling syndicate’, which involves his son Aman Puneet Singh Kohli (who has also been detained on the same charges) and others, involved in availment of inadmissible duty drawbacks and other export incentives of several crores in violation of law by setting up more than a dozen shell companies to smuggle goods through misdeclaration of export goods in the guise of exporting ‘Indian Hand Knotted Silk Carpets.’
