RAJAN Vs. STATE OF KERALA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The accused was prosecuted for the offence punishable under Sections 8(1) and (2) of Abkari Act. He was found guilty and was therefore convicted and sentenced to suffer rigorous imprisonment for two years and to pay a fine of Rs.1 lakh with default clause of simple imprisonment for one year. Set off as per law was allowed.

(2.) The incident which gave rise to the case occurred on 18.12.2003. The prosecution case is that PW1 who was the Circle Inspector of Paravoor Excise Range received reliable information that the accused was keeping arrack in his house. He prepared search memo and sent it to court. He along with other officers went to the house of accused for search and they reached the house of the accused by about 3 a.m. The house was searched. The house faced south. On the eastern side of the bed room, there is a cot laid in the east west direction and below that cot, they found two cans having capacity of 2= litres each. They examined the cans. One of the cans was seen to contain 2 litres of arrack and the other contained 1 litre of arrack.

(3.) Pw5 was the Excise Inspector. He says that PW1 had produced the accused, contraband articles and documents before him and on that basis, he registered Crime No.50/2003 as per Ext.P10 occurrence report. PW5 would also say that he had sent the property list, Ext.P11 to court. He had also preferred forwarding note for sending the sample for chemical analysis.