MUTHUSWAMY Vs. STATE OF KERALA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The accused who was found guilty of the offence punishable under Section 58 of Abkari Act was convicted and sentenced to suffer rigorous imprisonment for two years and to pay a fine of Rs.1 lakh with default clause of rigorous imprisonment for three months. Set off as per law was allowed.

(2.) The prosecution case is that on the date of incident i.e. on 11.07.1997, PWs 3 and 4 along with other officers went for patrol duty and when they reached in front of A.S Tailors, they happened to see the accused coming along the road carrying a can of 10 litre capacity. Seeing the Excise Officials, he became jittery and that created a suspicion in the mind of officers who intercepted him and seized the can from him. The can was found to contain 4 litres of liquid and on examination it was turned out to be arrack. The accused was arrested from the place. The articles seized were sealed, and label containing the signature of CW1, accused and independent witnesses was affixed. The accused and the contraband articles along with the documents were produced before PW5 who registered Crime No.99/1997 as per Ext.P3 occurrence report. PW5 would say that he had the accused and articles produced before court. Ext.P5 is the property list by which the properties were produced before court. PW5 claims to have given a requisition to the court to take sample and sent it for chemical analysis. The chemical analysis report received is Ext.P6.Sample was taken by PW6, an employee of the court where the articles were produced. According to PW6, as per the orders issued by the Judicial First Class Magistrate Court concerned, she took sample of the contraband articles.

(3.) Subsequent investigation was taken over by PW7 who recorded the statement of witnesses, completed the investigation and laid charge before court.