BABU RAO Vs. INSPECTOR OF POLICE

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THE Inspector of Police, B-2, Police Station, Madras, arrested one Sadhashiv Rao on April 14, 1988, when he was found in possession of Rs. 3,25,506 under section 101 read with s ection 102 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, and registered a case in Crime No. 262 of 1988 (AFIR No. 548 of 1988) and produced him before the XV Metropolitan Magistrate, Madras, on April 15, 1988. He also handed over the amount seized to the court and the siad amount was credited to the criminal court deposit in that crime number. On his arrest, the said Sadhashiv Rao is stated to have given a statement to the polioce that the amount had been handed over to him by one Janardhan Sait of Sowcarpet, Madras, and he was later released on bail on April 18, 1988.

(2.) ON April 25, 1988, the petitioner filed Criminal M.P. No. 248 of 1988 in the said Crime Number in AFIR No. 548 of 1988 praying for the return of the amounts seized from Sadhashiv Rao and deposited into court.

(3.) IT is not as if the Assistant Director of Inspection filed the requisition in the court and seized the amount available from the custody of the court. As already referred to in the statement of facts, he has filed an application under section 451, Criminal Procedure Code, read with section 132 and 132A of the Act praying for the return of the amounts seized by the police and deposited in the court, as such money is the undisclosed income of the petitioner. The court passed an order only on such an application in ordering the return of the amount seized to the Income-tax Department. If the amount had been seized from the custody of the court by filing of a requisition by the Assistant Director of Inspection, the matter has to be looked at from a different angle, to see whether he had such power under the amended provisions of section 132A of the Act.