PUTRAJAYA, Oct 16 – The detention of an alleged underworld kingpin under the Emergency (Public Order and Prevention of Crime) Ordinance is unlawful, ruled the Federal Court here today.
A three-man bench comprising Chief Justice Tun Zaki Azmi and Federal Court judges Datuk Zulkefli Ahmad Makinudin and Datuk Gopal Sri Ram, allowed the appeal of S. K. Tangakaliswaran a/l Krishnan and ordered that he be set free.
However, the court’s decision today is academic because Tangakaliswaran was released from a two-year detention on Sept 9, this year, seven days after the Apex Court commenced hearing of his appeal. Subsequent to his release, Tangakaliswaran was put under restricted residence in Kelantan for a year.
The home ministry had issued an order for Tangakaliswaran, 45, the alleged kingpin of the “Hong Hong San” secret society in the Ulu Tiram and Masai areas in Johor, to be detained at the Simpang Renggam rehabilitation detention centre for links to a series of criminal activities.
The activities included fights, extortion, hijacking, illegal money-lending, collection of ‘protection money’, drug trafficking and buying stolen goods.
Tangakaliswaran’s detention took effect from Nov 17, last year. He brought the matter up for appeal to the Federal Court after he was unsuccessful in his writ of habeas corpus in the Kuala Lumpur High Court, in a bid to secure his release from the detention.
Sri Ram, in his eight-page judgment, said the High Court judge erred when he did not issue the writ of habeas corpus against Tangakaliswaran.
He said it was settled law that on an application for habeas corpus, the burden of satisfying the court that the detention was lawful, lay on the detaining authority.
In this case, Sri Ram said the respondents – home ministry, “Penguasa Kanan pusat pemulihan Simpang Renggam” and the Inspector-General of Police – failed to comply with the constitutional and statutory provisions.
He said the respondents did not show that the Advisory Board’s recommendations to Tangakaliswaran’s representation had been made to the King within three months, as prescribed under Article 151 of the Federal Constitution and Section 6 (1) of the Emergency Ordinance.
Tangakaliswaran had made the representation to the Advisory Board after he was issued with the detention order.
Sri Ram ruled there were contradictions in the affidavits of the secretary of the Advisory Board and the home ministry on whether the Board had made its recommendations to the King, and also descrepancies on the dates of submission of the recommendations.
Counsel Datuk Baljit Singh Sidhu and Abdul Shukor Ahmad represented Tangakaliswaran while Senior Federal Counsel Amir Nasaruddin appeared for the respondents. – Bernama
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