SUSEELAN Vs. STATE OF KERALA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This revision petition is directed against the judgment dtd. 15/1/2013 in Crl.A.No.54/2010 on the files of the Additional District and Sessions Court (Adhoc-I), Kollam (for short 'the appellate court') confirming the judgment dtd. 2/2/2010 in S.C.No.1435/2005 on the files of the Principal Assistant Sessions Court, Kollam (for short 'the trial court'). The revision petitioner is the accused. He faced trial for the offence punishable under Sec. 55(a) of the Abkari Act.

(2.) The prosecution case in short is that on 30/3/1999 at about 7.15 p.m., the revision petitioner was found in possession of 10 litres of illicit arrack in contravention of the Abkari Act and thereby committed the offence.

(3.) The prosecution examined PW1 to PW5 and marked Exts.P1 to P8. MO1 and MO2 were identified. No defence evidence was adduced. Considering the evidence on record, the accused/revision petitioner was found guilty and he was convicted for the said offence. He was sentenced to undergo simple imprisonment for 4 years and to pay a fine of ?1,00,000/-(Rupees one lakh), in default to suffer simple imprisonment for a period of one year. Challenging the conviction and sentence passed by both the courts below, the revision petitioner has approached this Court.