( 1 ) THIS motion for anticipatory bail has been made on behalf of the petitioner and relates to a case registered by C. B. I, under Section 120-B Indian Penal Code. and sections 3 and 5 of the Official Secrets Act. The petitioner alongwith his son and one Venugopal, a stenogrher in the service of M/s William Jacks Pvt. Ltd. since released on bail, are involved in the case.

( 2 ) THE F. I. R. is based on a letter dated 15. 4. 1987 received in the office of the C. B. I. and the case was actually registered on 17. 4. 1987. This letter has been written by one Navin Sikand of Trident Express, Freight Division of Trident Travels and Tours Pvt. Ltd. A-15/3, Vasant Vihar, New Delhi-110057. The following are the contents of the letter and the endorsement recorded there on by S. P. , C. B. I. INFORMATION A complaint dated 15. 4. 1987 alongwith the documents mentioned therein received by Shri S. N. Tewari, Deputy Supdt. of Police, C. B. I. S. P. B. STU, XI, New Delhi has been received in this office today i. e. 17. 4. 1987 through his Supervisory Officers. Complaint is being reproduced below :

TRIDENT Express freight Division of Trident travels and Tours Pvt. Ltd. A-15/3, Vasant Vihar, new Delhi-110057 telephone Nos. 078495 and 674239 15. 4. 1987 mr. S. N. Tewari, dsp, CBI, CIU, NC. , new Delhi dear Sir, our operation Supervisor Mr. Joy Thomas had received a set of documents vide Airway Bill No. 236 dated 4. 4. 1987 for France from Mr. N. C. Dass Address : Kiran Bhawan, New Delhi and the documents were actually picked up by M/s William Jacks, 1100 Ashoka Estate, Barakhamba Road, new Delhi. Telephone No. 3313168, 3313167. After receiving the telephone call for picking up the documents our operation supervisor instructed the courier to pick up the documents from the said party. In the evening, when the courier handed the documents to the Operations Supervisor and stated that the mode of payment has been cash and he was asked not to endorse the Company s name on the docket as the documents were not of the company s and which was the reason he was paying white cash. Mr. Thomas felt uneasy and as he had the instructions to open all sample shipments and also check up documents shipments for international sector, he opened this envelope and found the documents to be of a secretive nature and he detained this set of documents to further inform me.

( 3 ) UPON being informed of the same, I contacted my Bombay Head Office to inform them of this and also asked them for our line of action. I was asked to get in touch with Mr. Tewari of C. B. I. and hand over him this set of document. Upon procuring the telephone of C. B. I. from telephone directory, I called up to be said. There are two/three Tewaris and which one I have to contact. I further communicated with my Bombay Office asking them for the initials of Mr. Tewari and received a communication of the initials of Mr. S. N. Tewari. Upon further contacts, I was told that Mr. Tewari is on Tour. Incidentally, I was speaking to Bombay Office, and also took the opportunity of speaking to yourself and you informed me that you will be returning on 14/4 and you will get in touch with me.

( 4 ) INCIDENTALLY, in the meanwhile, our operations office received another set of documents for Netherlands and from the same party, but which was picked up by another courier boy and was booked vide Airway Bill No. 893 dated 13. 4. 1987. The shipper s name is Mr. Kashyap and again while booking the courier was informed the documents belong to his friend and he has asked him to forward by courier service and hence he is paying by cash and also the company s name is not mentioned. Upon receiving the load in the evening, Mr. Thomas again opened the documents as a check up routine and found the documents to be again of a secretive nature. These documents were also retained for handing over to you. We are handing over to you the sets of documents along with our booking receipts per mentioned as Airwa