KAUR SAIN Vs. STATE OF PUNJAB

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The learned Judicial Magistrate, 1st Class, Sunam convicted the appellant under Section 9 of the Opium Act. for being in possession of over 1 Kg of opium without a licence and sentenced him to suffer rigorous imprisonment for 8 months and to pay a fine of Rs. 500/-. The order of conviction and sentence was confirmed in appeal by the learned Sessions Judge, Sangrur, and in revision by the High Court of Punjab and Haryana. This appeal by special leave is directed against the judgment of the High Court.

(2.) According to the prosecution, the appellant was arrested on June 9, 1968 under Section 54 of the Code of Criminal Procedure. While he was in the police lock-up, he is alleged to have made a statement that he had kept a tin containing opium in his house. Gurdev Singh, the Station House Officer of the Lehra police station, asked a constable to secure two Panchas and thereafter the police party went to the appellant's house. It is said that the appellant produced a tin of opium weighing 1 Kg. and 300 gms. and handed it over to Gurdev Singh.

(3.) The appellant examined seven witnesses in support of his defence that it was on June 8, 1968 that he was put under arrest in a place called Nagla where he runs a liquor shop. Before leaving Nagla, the appellant and his companion Jagdish Rai, who was also put under arrest, presented an application before the Sarpanch of the village panchayat stating that they were apprehensive that they would be involved on some false charge or the other on account of their enmity with certain persons. The appellant produced the application as also a receipt issued by the village panchayat, acknowledging the payment of the fee paid by the appellant for filing the application. Appellant denied that he either made a statement that he had kept the opium in his house or that he produced the opium.