KALAKAPPA Vs. STATE OF KARNATAKA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This petition is filed by the accused under Section 438 of The Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 (hereinafter referred to as the Cr.P.C. , for brevity) seeking anticipatory bail in Crime No.208/2020 of Kustagi Police Station, registered for an offence under Section 3 punishable under Section 7 of Essential Commodities Act, 1955( (hereinafter referred to as the EC Act, for brevity).

(2.) The case of the prosecution is that the Food Inspector namely Sri. Nitin has filed a complaint against the petitioner/accused alleging that on 18.08.2020 at about 5.50 pm when he was in the house, he received phone call from the Tasildhar, Kustagi, alleging that the petitioner has stored rice bags in the godown i.e., Sri,. Chandramouleshwar Trading Company. Based on the said information, the complainant went to the spot along with police staff and panchas and conducted raid where they noticed that the petitioner has illegally stored fare price rice bags in room No.3 without holding any licence or permission and the complainant seized 36 plastic bags of rice of 50kg, in total 1805 kg of rice worth Rs.46,800/-. On enquiry, the petitioner is the owner of Sri.Chandramouleshwar Trading company and at the time of raid, he ran away from the scene of occurrence. The said complaint came to be registered in Crime No.208/2020 for the offence under Section 3 punishable under Section 7 of the EC Act. The petitioner approached the learned Prl. District and Sessions Judge, Koppal, seeking anticipatory bail and the same came to be rejected on 11.09.2020. Therefore the petitioner is before this Court seeking anticipatory bail.

(3.) Heard the learned counsel appearing for the petitioner and the learned High Court Government Pleader for the respondent-State.