Bombay high court says accused can't be compelled to take treatment in India, allows woman on bail in gold smuggling case to travel to the US

MUMBAI: The Bombay High Court permitted an OCI card holder on bail in a gold smuggling case to travel to the US for medical treatment, saying the prosecution can't compel her to take treatment in India.
The HC said the submissions of the Centre and Directorate of Revenue Intelligence, which is prosecuting the case, to oppose her plea on the ground that the treatment was available in India, were “preposterous.”

The prosecution cannot force her to undertake medical treatment in India and resist her request to undertake treatment in the USA when she desires to return to India, said Justice Milind Jadhav in an April 30 order.
The woman, Ami Kotecha, a citizen of the US and an overseas citizen of India (OCI), was arrested on February 21 after being found entering with undeclared over 5 kgs of gold bars worth Rs 5 crore at the Mumbai International Airport. She was behind bars for 28 days and was released on bail with the condition to deposit her passport for six months with the Indian authorities.
Last month, she approached the HC for permission to travel after a magistrate denied the relief. She sought orders to delete the bail condition.
Her lawyer, Sujay Kantawala, invoking her fundamental right to travel, said she wished to attend her daughter’s graduation ceremony in the US, apart from her ongoing medical treatment there, for which she needed to travel to the USA and return.
The special public prosecutor, Siddharth Chandrashekhar, opposed her plea, citing adequate treatment facilities in India with necessary drugs for her ailment, and hence there was no need to travel to the US.
Justice Jadhav said prima facie he found no reasons to disbelieve her case of medical treatment but said the prosecution’s case to compel her to undergo treatment in India solely due to the pending case against her “cannot be accepted.”
The HC deleted the bail condition over the passport but clarified that she must give her travel itinerary in advance to the prosecutor and undertake to cooperate with the probe in the case.
Any breach on her part will entitle DRI to seek revocation of its order, the HC said, directing the immediate handing over of the passport to the woman