ARJUN SHAMRAO ANDALKAR Vs. STATE OF MAHARASHTRA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THE appellant convicted for the offence under section 20 (b) of the N. D. P. S. Act and sentenced to suffer RI for one year and to pay a fine of Rs. 1,000/- in default RI for two months has challenged in this Appeal the order of his conviction and sentence recorded by the Ld. Sessions Judge, Solapur on 17-9-1992.

(2.) THE prosecution case appearing from the evidence of investigating Officer PSI Shinde (PW 6) is as follows : PSI Shinde was attached to Railway Police Station, kurduwadi on the date of the incident i. e. 14-1-1992. On that day at about 11. 30 p. m. they received the information that a boy travelling by Jayanti Janata Express was possessing and carrying illicit Ganja in his bag. He made station diary entry and called two panchas, one Sanjay Sathe pw 2 and Vishwanath Devakate at the Police Station and went to the railway station on the narrow gauge railway platform along with the police staff and the panchas. He found the appellant sitting on one bench under the railway platform clock. He caught the accused in the presence of the panchas and asked him about the contents of his bag. The appellant told him that it contained ganja and, therefore, asked him as to whether a search in the presence of the Magistrate or a Gazetted Officer should be taken to which he replied in the negative. His cloth bag was then searched which was found containing three pudis of ganja each of which weighed 500 gms. He then took the sample of 50 gms. from each of those three pudis, sealed them and the sample pudis under the signature of the panchas. The panchanama about the same was drawn on the spot and he brought the accused along with the attached property to the Police Station and lodged his complaint which is Exhibit 16. Following day he recorded the statements of the witnesses and sent his report to the superintendent of Police, Pune copy whereof is produced at exhibit 17. On 16-1-1992 the sample was sent to CA along with Police Constable Borate. The report of the CA was received which is at Exhibit 18. After the completion of the investigation charge-sheet was filed in the Court of JMFC, daund which is Exhibit 19 against the appellant for offence under section 20 (b) of the N. D. P. S. Act. The appellant was tried before the Sessions Court, Solapur and the charge was framed under section 20 (b) of the N. D. P. S. Act. The accused pleaded not guilty and contended that on that day he was returning from Bombay after purchasing the medicines for his father who was being treated in Tata Hospital at Bombay for cancer and he was caught by the ticket checker as he was travelling without ticket and kept in custody of the police who implicated him falsely.

(3.) ON behalf of the prosecution six witnesses were examined including PSI Shinde who investigated the matter and also filed the complaint. The other witnesses are PW 1 police Constable Ghodage who was attached to the Railway police Station, Kurduwadi and was a member of the raiding party. PW 2 is Sanjay Sathe who was working as Coolie who had acted as a pancha to the seizure panchnama Exhibit 8. PW 3 is Police Constable Kale who was a member of the raiding party. PW 4 is Police Head Constable Nimbalkar who was working as Muddemal Clerk attached to the Railway Police station, Kurduwadi. PW 5 is Police Constable Borate and was member of the raiding party. All these witnesses have supported the complainant s evidence.