LALAI Vs. STATE

JUDGEMENT

(1.) LALAI applicant was convicted for the offence punishable under Section 411 T.P.C. by the Judicial Magis­trate First Class. He was sentenced to un­dergo R. 1, for a period of one year and to pay a fine of Rs. 1,000/-. In default of pay­ment of fine, he was directed to undergo further imprisonment for a period of three months. The appeal preferred by Lallai was dismissed by the Fourth Additional Ses­sions Judge, Mirzapur. He has now pre­ferred this revision.

(2.) BETWEEN the night of February 10 and 11. 1979, 600 metres of electric wire was stolen from the Transmission line be­tween villages Gorsar and Akorhi, police station Vindhyachal in the district of Mir­zapur. A first information report of this theft was lodged by P.W. 5 Sri Jagnarain Misra, Assistant Engineer.

(3.) NOW , Section 115, Illustration (a), inter alia, provides that if a stolen article is recovered from the possession of a person, the court may presume that such person is either a thief or a receiver of a stolen goods. The question which calls for consideration in this revision is whether the prosecution has succeeded in proving that the wire al­leged to have been recovered from the pos­session of the applicant was a stolen article.