Bombay High Court orders release of foreign national after finding grounds of detention were supplied in Hindi

The Bombay High Court recently ordered the release of a foreign national accused in a drug case after finding that the grounds for detention supplied to him were in Hindi which the accused could not understand [Agisilaos Demetriades v. Union of India & Ors.].A bench of Justices Revati Mohite Dere and Prithviraj Chavan observed that supplying the detenu the grounds of detention is a very precious constitutional right. “Non supply of translated version of the ground of detention would indeed tantamount to not serving the grounds of detention to the detenu and would, thus, vitiate the detention” the bench held..The accused, Agisilaos Demetriades, brother of partner of Bollywood actor Arjun Rampal, had been detained by the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) since April 2022.He was accused under provisions of Prevention of Illicit Traffic in Narcotic and Psychotropic Substances Act (PITNPSA). The NCB had arrested the accused in 2020 after he was found with 0.8 grams of hashis/charas. Thereafter, the investigating agency seized 15 tables of Alprax from the residence of the accused.He was granted bail after a month and the detention order was passed by Department of Revenue (PITNDPS Unit) in September 2021..Challenging the same in High Court through advocate Kushal Mor, the accused pointed out that the petitioner being a foreign national had no knowledge of Hindi.Because of this, he could not read, write or understand Hindi and the documents relied upon for grounds of detention were in Hindi and no translation for the same had been provided. This resulted in the petitioner being handicapped from making an effective and complete representation, it was argued.Counsel for NCB, Shreeram Shirsat argued that the petitioner had been represented by an advocate who had translated the Hindi documents to a language the petitioner understood..The Court noted from the panchnama that the accused had refused to sign the pages in the panchnama while conspicuously endorsing that ‘I am being forced to sign this document on the 22/04/22’.This falsified NCB’s contention, the Bench deduced, as there was no reason otherwise for the accused to endorse as above.“The aforesaid documents nowhere clarify as to in which particular language the detenu was made to understand the contents thereof. This speaks volumes. Be that as it may. Endorsement made by the detenu is significant in light of the attending circumstances,” the Court noted.In another panchnama filed the next day, the Court noted that the accused had claimed he had received all documents and understood all contents, but the same seemed hard to believe since a vital document was in Hindi.The vital document was a statement of a drug peddler who claimed to have supplied Ganja to the accused on two occasions.“This statement essentially is in Hindi language. There is absolutely nothing on record to indicate that this particular document/statement had been translated and explained to the detenu in the language which he understood,” the Court noted.It further opined that merely stating that translation was provided in panchnama was an unproven statement and authorities ought to have stated the same on an affidavit.With these observations, the Court proceeded to quash the detention order of September 2021 and directed that the accused be released immediately..[Read Order]