RAMESH. Vs. STATE

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Crl.A.No.898 of 2019 is filed by one Raja (A3) and the Criminal Appeal No.829 of 2019 is filed by one Ramesh (A4) in C.C.No.51 of 2018 against the conviction and sentence imposed against them by judgment of the Special Judge, I Additional Special Court for Exclusive Trial of Cases under N.D.P.S Act, 1985, Chennai, dtd. 15/10/2019 and as such both the appeals were heard together and are being disposed of by this common judgment.

(2.) On 27/11/2017, on information through telephone at about 03.00 P.M from a secret informant that ganja is being illegally transported in a lorry bearing Registration No.TN-15-U-9515, surveillance was mounted at Nazarethpet Check-Post after informing the information to the superior officer in writing. P.W.1 namely, Ms.Suguna, the Inspector of Police along with the inspection party intercepted the lorry and the driver of the lorry identified himself as Mathi, son of Perumal, a person aside him identified himself as Selvakumar, son of Muniayappan and yet another person who identified himself as Ramesh, son of Rajendran, upon being informed of their rights under Sec. 50 of the N.D.P.S Act, 1985 offered themselves to be searched by P.W.1 herself and the general public in the vicinity declining to be the witness for search in the presence of P.W.2 namely, Babu, the Sub Inspector of Police and one Manikandan, a Grade-I Police Constable, obtained the signatures of the accused and conducted a search, it was found that among sacks of rubber, 11 sacks containing ganja were available. P.W.1 weighed all the 11 sacks and serialized them as P.1 to P.11 and the ganja was recovered under Exs.P-3 Mahazar and the said 3 persons were arrested. Upon their confession, the house of the owner of the lorry, was also searched and ganja was recovered in his house also and he was also arrested and remanded to custody. Upon registration of a case in Cr.No.95 of 2017 under Ss. 8(c) r/w 20(b)(ii)(C), 25, 27A, 28 and 29 of the N.D.P.S Act, 1985, P.W.7 took up the case for investigation and on completion of the investigation, filed final report before the Special Court proposing all the 4 accused guilty of the offences. Thereafter, upon consideration of the materials on record, the Trial Court framed charges as detailed below:-

(3.) Upon questioning, all the four accused denied the charges and stood trial. So as to bring home the charges, Suguna, the Inspector of Police, who conducted search and seized the contraband was examined as P.W.1; one Babu, the Sub Inspector of Police, who accompanied P.W.1 for the search and seizure and a witness for the seizure was examined as P.W.2; one Sivakumar, a Head Constable, who took the samples and handed over the samples for Forensic Examination, was examined as P.W.3; one Meenakshi, a Forensic Expert, who examined the samples and gave an opinion that the sample is ganja, was examined as P.W.4; one Nithin Paul, who is an employee of one Malaya Rub Tech Industries, Cochin, which transported the rubber in the lorry in which ganja was found, was examined as P.W.5; one Jaisingh Bermacha another employee from M/s.East India Agency, which has booked the lorry for transportation of the consignments, was examined as P.W.6; and one Purushothaman, the Investigating Officer in this case was examined as P.W.7.