ASHIQ MIYAN Vs. STATE OF MADHYA PRADESH

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This is an appeal, by special leave in which the appellants challenge the propriety and correctness, of the order of the Madhya Pradesh High Court confirming their conviction, under Section 120B, I. P. C., 1878 (Act 1 of 1878), (hereinafter called the Act). Appellants 2 and 3 are the sons of the first appellant, and the 4th appellant since deceased, was his nephew.

(2.) On receiving information, that opium was being smuggled and secretly kept, in the house of the appellants the Sub- Inspector of Police Station Malharganj, Indore with a police party, raided their house, on September 19, 1960, and recovered a fairly large quantity of opium of about 2 maunds, 14 seers and 14 chhatacks. The appellants were arrested and charge-sheeted, for having committed offences, under Section 120B, I. P. C. and Section 9 (a) of the Act. They pleaded not guilty. Their defence was that each of them was living separately, and they were not also in the house, when the opium was stated to have been recovered. The deceased, 4th appellant, raised a plea that one Altaf had come, in the morning of September 19, 1960, at about 9 A. M., and told him that the police were after him, and that he wanted to throw a bundle, which was, in his possession, in the house of the appellants. Accordingly, Altaf threw a bundle, in the court-yard of the house of the appellants.

(3.) The Additional City Magistrate, Indore, accepted the case of the prosecution and rejected the plea of the appellants. The trial Magistrate found that the opium was recovered from the possession of the appellants, who had no permit or licence, for its possession or transportation, and he also found that the appellants, along with others had conspired to possess the said opium. On these findings, each of the appellants, was convicted, under Section 120B, I. P. C., and Section 9 (a) of the Act and sentenced to undergo two years' rigorous imprisonment in respect of each of the offences, the sentences to run concurrently.