STATE OF U P Vs. RAM DASS

JUDGEMENT

(1.) STATE of U. P. has come up in appeal against the judgment of Additional District and Sessions Judge, Bareilly, dated 19-1-1971 allowing the appeal of Ram Das and setting aside the judgment of the Special Railway Magistrate 1st Class dated 10th August, 1970 convicting him for an offence under Section 3 of the Railway Property (Unlawful Possession) Act, 1966.

(2.) BRIEFLY stated the case for the prosecution was that on 12-3-1969, at about 1-45 A. M. accused Ram Das was searched at workshop gate by Rakshak Varma Singh and Head Rakshak Kripal Singh and 5 Kg. of copper dust mixed with white metal dust belonging to the railway, was recovered from inside a bag which he was carrying. The recovery was made in the presence of witnesses and after preparing the recovery memo the recovered material was sealed at the spot. Thereafter, the accused, along with recovered material was taken to the police station where a report was lodged, and in due course a complaint under Section 3 of the Railway Property (Unlawful Possession) Act, 1966 was filed and Ram Das was prosecuted accordingly.

(3.) IN support of its case the prosecution examined ten witnesses in all. But of them P. W. 1 T. P. Srivastava, P. W. 2 Varma Singh, P. W. 3 Prakash Chand and P. W. 4 Kripal Singh are witnesses of fact, P. W. 5 S. R. Gangoli Incharge Loco Workshop Railway deposed that he examined metal dust recovered from the possession of Ram Das and found it to be railway property. The remaining witnesses produced in the case were more or less of a formal nature.