VANARAJ Vs. THE STATE

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The appellant is the sole accused in C.C. No. 1246 of 2000 on the file of the Special Court under the NDPS Act and E.C. Act, Madurai. He stood charged for the offences punishable under Ss. 8(c) r/w. 20(b)(ii) of the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act, 1985 (NDPS Act). By judgment dated 01.07.2008, the trial Court convicted him under the said charges and sentenced him to undergo rigorous imprisonment for one year and to pay a fine of Rs. 5,000/ -, in default, to undergo one month rigorous imprisonment. Challenging the same, the appellant is before this Court with this Criminal Appeal. The case of the prosecution in brief is as follows:

(2.) Based on the above materials, the trial Court framed a single charge against the appellant. In order to prove the case on the side of the prosecution as many as five witnesses were examined and four documents were exhibited, besides three material objects. P.W. 1 is the chemical analyst, who has spoken about the analysis done and reported that the sample was ganja. P.W. 2 is the Head Clerk of Judicial Magistrate Court, who has spoken about the forwarding of samples for chemical analysis. P.W. 3 and P.W. 5 were spoken about the production of the ganja by the accused, arrest of the accused and other facts. P.W. 4 has spoken about the investigation done by him.

(3.) When the above incriminating materials were put to the accused under Sec. 313 Cr.P.C., he denied the same as false. However, he did not choose to examine any witnesses on his side nor marked any documents. Having considered all the above materials, the trial Court convicted the appellant and accordingly, punished him. That is how, the appellant is before this Court with this criminal appeal.