THANKAPPAN Vs. STATE OF KERALA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The accused was prosecuted for the offence punishable under Sections 8(1) and (2) of the Abkari Act and having found guilty, the court below convicted him and sentenced him to undergo rigorous imprisonment for 2 years and to pay a fine of Rs.1 lakh and in default, to undergo 3 months rigorous imprisonment.

(2.) The incident which gave raise to this case occurred on 9.6.2001. On the relevant date, PW1 was functioning as the Excise Circle Inspector of Excise Enforcement and Anti Narcotic Special Squad, Alappuzha. He received reliable information about the illegal activity being carried on by the accused. He prepared a search memo and sent it to the court and proceeded to the place of occurrence. The accused was found engaged in the act of distillation. A liquid was found by the side of the accused and by taste and smell, it was identified as arrack. On the north-eastern corner side of the house, they could spot a can of 10 ltr. capacity containing 8 ltrs. of arrack. That was also confirmed by taste and smell. Apart from these articles, in a can of 50 ltr. capacity, they were able to detect 35 ltrs. of wash. PW1 says that he took a sample of 200 ml. in a bottle of 300 ml. capacity, from the liquid contained in the black can. From the wash also, 500 ml. sample was taken. All the samples were sealed and labelled and the label contained the signatures of the accused, the witnesses and PW1. Ext.P1 mahazar was prepared and Ext.P2 is the search list. The search memo prepared by him was sent to the court by Ext.P3. Ext.P4 is the arrest memo. PW1 would say that he handed over the accused, the contraband article and the records to the Excise Range Office, Alappuzha. PW7 was the Excise Inspector attached to Alappuzha Excise Range Office. On 9.12.2001, according to him, the accused along with the seized articles were produced before him and on that day, he had registered Crime No.14/2001 as per Ext.P10 occurrence report. The accused and the articles were produced on the very same day. The property list is Ext.P11 and requisition for chemical analysis, ie., the forwarding note, is Ext.P12. PW5 took over the investigation as per the direction of the Assistant Excise Commissioner and recorded the statement of the witnesses. His successor in office, PW6, obtained possession certificate of the premises from where the articles were seized and completed the investigation and laid charge before the court.

(3.) The court before which the final report was laid, took cognizance of the offence and on finding that the offence is exclusively triable by a court of Sessions, committed the case to the Sessions court, Alappuzha, which court made over the case to the Additional District and Sessions court for trial and disposal.