SHAN Vs. STATE OF KERALA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The petitioner herein is the original 2nd accused in Crime No.115 of 2009 of the Peruvannamuzhi Police Station, registered under Section 55(a) of the Kerala Abkari Act, and Section 132 read with Section 179 of the Motor Vehicles Act. He is the driver of the Autorickshaw No. KL56/2515. At about 1.15 P.M on 20/08/2009, the said Auto rickshaw was intercepted by the Police and some quantity of Indian made Foreign Liquor contained in 15 bottles was seized. The passenger who carried the quantity of liquor, ran off and escaped from the spot of detection. He later faced trial in S.C.153/2012, before the Court of Session, and the case as against this petitioner was split up and refiled when he remained consistently absent. It is now pending as SC 614/2016 before the learned Assistant Sessions Judge, Koyilandy. After full trial, the trial court acquitted the first accused by judgment dated 6/10/2016 on the ground that, there is no material of any sort to prove that the contraband involved in the case is Indian made Foreign Liquor. The petitioner now seeks orders quashing the prosecution as against him under Section 482 Cr.P.C,, 1973 on the ground that the very substratum of the prosecution case is lost by the acquittal of the first accused on merits.

(2.) Annexure-A2 is the judgment of the trial court in SC 153 of 2012. This judgment shows that the Sub Inspector who detected the offence had not collected the required sample, and nothing was sent for chemical analysis. In short, the Police brought final report without any supporting material to show that the contraband involved in the case is Indian made Foreign Liquor, or any type of liquor containing ethyl alcohol.

(3.) In paragraph 10 of the Annexure-A2 judgment, the learned trial Judge found thus: