SANKARAN Vs. STATE OF KERALA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The appellant was prosecuted for the offence punishable under Section 8(1) & (2) of the Kerala Abkari Act. He was found guilty. He was therefore convicted and sentenced to suffer rigorous imprisonment for one year and to pay a fine of 1 lakh with a default clause of simple imprisonment for a further period of six months. Set off as per law was allowed.

(2.) When the matter was taken up for hearing, the learned counsel appearing for the appellant submitted that the appellant is no more and his legal heirs have not inherited any estate. Since the sentence also involves fine, the appeal will not abate as a whole and his legal representatives were free to come on record if they wanted to continue with the sentence. The appeal is therefore disposed of on merits since the appeal does not abate in its entirety on the death of the appellant for the reason already stated.

(3.) The incident in this case is said to have occurred on 03.03.2002. On that day PW1, the Preventive Officer attached to the Mavelikkara Excise Range at about 6.30 p.m., was on routine patrol duty along with other officers. When they reached near the house of Pullunnivilayil Bhaskaran Pillai, they happened to see the accused coming along the road with a bottle of 750ml capacity. As he passed the Excise officers, he became nervous and he tried to run away. He was intercepted and the bottle was seized from his possession. On examination of the contents, it was found to be arrack. A sample of 200ml in a bottle of 375ml capacity was taken and it was sealed and labelled as per the requisite procedures. The labels contained the signatures of PW1, the accused and the witnesses. Ext.P1 mahazar was prepared at the spot. Thereafter, PW1 handed over the accused, records and the contraband articles to the Range Office. PW4, the Excise Inspector speaks on behalf of the Assistant Excise Inspector, who took various steps after the accused and the records were produced before the range Office. The person, who received the articles and the accused and the documents, was one Sri. Asok Kumar, who was the Assistant Excise Inspector at the relevant time. As per the records which he received by him, he had registered the crime as per the occurrence report namely, Ext.P2. He had prepared the property list and he had sent the requisition for sending the sample for chemical examination, which is marked as Ext.P5. Further investigation was done by PW4 who received the Chemical Analysis Report, recorded statements of witnesses, completed investigation and laid charge before court.