VIRENDRA GUPTA Vs. STATE OF U.P.

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Heard Sri Amit Kumar Singh, learned counsel for the applicant in revision and Smt. Manju Thakur, learned A.G.A.-I for the State.

(2.) Factual matrix of the matter is being quickly summed up as hereunder :- Virendra Gupta is admittedly the registered owner of a Bolero MUV bearing registration no. UP 53 AF 2145, hereinafter referred to as the vehicle. The vehicle was seized by the police on 01.03.2018 pursuant to information received from a police informer that in the brick kiln of one Kripa Shankar Rai, illicit country-made adulterated liquor was being brewed and that a Bolero MUV was parked there with a consignment of liquor that would soon by transported to some place for sale. Acting on the aforesaid tip off, the police party raided the aforesaid brick kiln and found the driver seated in the vehicle parked in the brick kiln. The police party surrounded the vehicle although the driver and the other men sitting inside the vehicle managed to escape but two others who were loading ready liquor onto the vehicle, were arrested. The arrested persons disclosed their names as Mata Deen Yadav and Pankaj Gupta. The vehicle along with the consignment of liquor was also seized.

(3.) Chief Judicial Magistrate, Mau rejected the application on the ground that since confiscation proceeding pertaining to the vehicle u/s 72 (2) of the U.P. Excise Act hereinafter referred to as the 'Act' were in progress, it was not proper in the interest of justice to release the vehicle in favour of the revisionist.