MURALIDHAR GARODIA Vs. STATE

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THIS revisional application is directed against an order of conviction and sentence under sections 3 and 4 of Act XXXII of 1957.

(2.) THE prosecution case is as follows: petitioner No. 1, Murulidhar Garodia, is a lessee in respect of a Gaddi at 68, Cotton Street, Calcutta. On certain information that the gaddi in question was being used as a common gaming house, the officer-in-charge of Barabazar Police Station searched the gaddi on July 22, 1962 and arrested the petitioners while Gambling in Rains and seized some instruments of gaming, some cash money and some documents.

(3.) PETITIONER No. 1 was thereafter tried under sections 3 and 4 of the said Act and the other petitioners under section 4 of the said Act. The petitioners pleaded not guilty. Their defence was that there was no gambling in the gaddi where normal business in silver was transacted. The learned Magistrate has convicted petitioners No. 1 under sections 3 and 4 of the said Act and sentenced him to a fine of Rs. 100/-, in default, to simple imprisonment for two weeks under section 3. No separate sentence was passed under section 4. The learned Magistrate also convicted the other petitioners under section 4 of the said Act and sentenced each of them to a fine of Rs. 100/- in default to simple imprisonment for seven days. He further directed the cash money seized, to be confiscated and the other articles seized to be destroyed.