(1.) THE appellant in this case has been convicted under Sections 4 (a) and 5 of the Bombay Prevention of Gambling Act (Bom. IV of 1887) and sentenced to pay a fine of Rs. 250 with seven weeks' rigorous imprisonment in default.
(2.) THE facts appearing in evidence are these. Sub-Inspector Shevde had received information that gambling was going on in a passage on the first floor of Keshavji Nathoo Sailor's Chawl on Frere Road. After verifying the information, on April 2, 1938, he marked an eight anna coin and gave it to one Pandu Tukaram to bet on the figures 5 and 2 as a double. Pandu then went to the chawl accompanied by a police constable, who stood on the staircase while Pandu went up to the accused who was in the passage. THE punter laid the bet with the accused and informed the Sub-Inspector of it, whereupon the place was raided. THE accused was found alone in the passage and in his hand tied up in a handkerchief was the sum of Rs. 7-9-0 in which the marked coin was included. Apparently information had been given that the accused after taking bets was in the habit of going to a water closet on the same landing. THE police took the Panch and the accused to this water closet, and on the water tank there was found a match box which contained a slip of paper, exhibit B. On this are a number of figures and a few names in Marathi.
(3.) THE police constable who accompanied the punter deposed that he stood on the staircase leading up to the first floor, three or four steps below the top, and he claimed to have seen the punter playing with the accused. It was brought out in his cross-examination that he had made some contradictory statements, and apparently there is some doubt as to whether he could have seen anything from the place where he was. THE learned Magistrate evidently did not regard him as a very reliable witness. In any case the most he could possibly have seen was the punter going up to the accused and giving something to him. He could not possibly have heard anything.