AMIR Vs. STATE OF MAHARASHTRA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) On March 10, 1966 the appellant was apprehended by a Railway constable at the gate of the Malkapur Railway Station, immediately after he had obtained the delivery of a parcel. The parcel was found to contain 95,000 capsules of Seco Barbital Sodium which is a sedative agent and is commonly used for intoxication. The intoxicant is popularly called "Lal Paari".

(2.) The appellant was tried by the learned Judicial Magistrate. First Class, Malkapur for offence under Sections 18 (a)(ii) and 18(c) read with Section 27 (a)(ii) and 27(b) of the Drugs and Cosmetics Act, 23 of 1940, on the charge that he had stocked for a sale misbranded drug and that he had no license for stocking the drug for sale. The appellant admitted that he was carrying the parcel at the time of his arrest but his defence was that he took delivery of the parcel on behalf of the Mahamud Jamadar who had represented to him that the parcel contained a 'science apparatus' meant for a school. The Magistrate rejected this defence as untrue, convicted the appellant and sentenced him to pay a fine of Rs.1200/-.

(3.) In appeal the learned Sessions Judge, Buldana acquitted the appellant on the view that though the facts raised a suspicion that the appellant or some other person on whose behalf the appellant had taken delivery of the parcel may have had the object of selling the capsules, the mere fact that the appellant was carrying the parcel would not justify the inference that the drug was stocked for sale.