SIVANANDAN Vs. STATE OF KERALA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Though prosecuted for the offence under Section 55(a) and (i) of the Abkari Act, after trial, accused was found guilty of the offence under Section 58 of Abkari Act. He was therefore convicted and sentenced to suffer rigorous imprisonment for one year and to pay a fine of Rs.1 lakh with default clause of rigorous imprisonment for one month. Set off as per law was allowed.

(2.) The incident occurred on 25.06.1999. On that day, PW4, the then Sub Inspector of Police, Balaramapuram Police Station along with PW3 and others had gone for routine patrol duty. On the way, they received reliable information regarding sale of arrack at a particular place. They went to the spot and found a person with a bottle standing near a bunk shop. Seeing the Police Officers, he tried to escape. He was intercepted and the bottle was seized. By taste and smell, the contents of the bottle was identified as arrack. The accused was arrested from the spot. 180ml of arrack was taken in another bottle as sample and it was sealed. The accused had also had a glass with him and Rs.200/- was recovered from his purse. Ext.P1 is the mahazar prepared by PW4. He returned to the station and on the basis of seizure mahazar, he registered a crime as per Ext.P2 First Information Report. He prepared Ext.P4 property list and also filed requisition for sending the sample for chemical analysis and obtained Ext.P5 report. He completed the investigation and laid charge before court.

(3.) The court before which final report was laid took cognizance of the offence and finding that the offence is exclusively triable by a Court of Sessions, the case was committed to Sessions Court, Thiruvananthapuram. The said court made over the case to Additional Sessions Court for trial of Abkari Act cases, Neyyattinkara for trial and disposal. The latter court, on receipt of records and on appearance of accused, framed charge for the offence under Sections 55(a) and (i) of Abkari Act. The accused pleaded not guilty to the charge and claimed to be tried.