SURENDRAN Vs. STATE OF KERALA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The accused in this case was prosecuted for the offence punishable under Section 55(a) of Abkari Act. He was found guilty and therefore convicted and sentenced to suffer rigorous imprisonment for three years and to pay a fine of Rs.1 lakh with default clause of rigorous imprisonment for one year.

(2.) The incident is said to have taken place on 06.02.1998. The claim made by the prosecution is that PW5, Sub Inspector of Police, who was on patrol duty along with other officers happened to see the accused coming along with a can and he was intercepted and the can was examined. It was detected that he was carrying about 6 liters of arrack in the can having a capacity of 10 liters. He sealed the can and samples were taken from the can and seized the same under Ext.P1 mahazar. He returned to the Police Station along with the articles seized and the accused and registered a crime as per Ext.P4 F.I.R. He produced the accused before court. He conducted the investigation. PW4 is the successor in office of PW5. After verifying the records, he laid charge before court.

(3.) The Judicial First Class Magistrate Court-1, Attingal before whom final report was laid took cognizance of the offence and after issuing summons to the accused and on appearance of the accused, case was committed to Sessions Court, Thiruvananthapuram. The said court initially made over the case to Assistant Sessions Court, Attingal for trial and disposal and subsequently to Additional District & Sessions Court (Fast Track- II), Thiruvananthapuram.