GUNDU APPARAO DESHPANDE Vs. RASHIDABI GULABHUSSAIN SHAIKH

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This appeal is filed by the original complainant, Superintendent of central Excise and Customs Preventive, Satara challenging the judgment and order dated 2- 5-1995 delivered by the Sessions Judge, Satara acquitting the respondent-accused of the offence under Section 20 (b) (i) of the NDPS act.

(2.) The prosecution case briefly stated is as follows : pursuant to the information the officer of the Central Excise made a search of the residential premises of the accused on 7th october, 1991. PW 3 was the Superintendent of Central Excise at the relevant time and had lodged the complaint and had issued search warrant under Section 41 (2) of the NDPS Act for searching the house of the respondent- accused. The raiding party was accompanied by two panchas. On search of the residential premises two polythene bags containing 167 and 210 packets of ganja were recovered which were kept behind the frames. The raiding party also recovered two tins concealed in the house which contained flowers and leaves of ganja. The total ganja recovered from the said premises was 8.25 Kgs. valued at Rs. 4000/ -. The samples were drawn by the officers and thereafter accused was arrested. At the time of arrest PW 2 Ashok Chavan had allegedly gone there for the purchase of ganja. The samples were sent for analysis to the CA. CA report dated 31/10/1991 is produced on record as Exhibit 13 as per which the samples were of ganja. After completion of investigation the complaint was lodged by PW 3, the superintendent of Excise Deshpande.

(3.) The learned Sessions judge framed charges against the respondent-accused on 30th December, 1994 for offence under section 20 (b) (i) read with Section 8 (c) of the ndps Act and for offence under Section 66 (1) (b) of the Bombay Prohibition Act to which the accused pleaded not guilty. On behalf of the prosecution six witnesses were examined. PW 1 is Uttam Rasal, the Inspector of Central Excise who was member of the raiding party. PW2 is Ashok Chavan who was examined to show that he had gone to the premises in question at the time of raid for purchase of ganja. He had turned hostile and did not support the prosecution case at all. PW 3 is Gundopant Deshpande, the Superintendent of Central Excise who had filed complaint which is at Exhibit 1. PW 4 Vijay Mali and pw 5 Sanjay Barge had acted as panchas to the search and seizure, both of whom had turned hostile and did not support the prosecution case. Lastly the prosecution examined Hanmant Kadam as PW 6 who produced the gram panchayat extract to show that the premises in question stood in the name of the respondent-accused. The defence of the accused was of denial.