BIBUTI BHUSAN NANDY Vs. STATE

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The appellant called in question the legality, validity and propriety of the judgement passed by the Special Judge, E.C. Act, Howrah in S.C.T. No. 131 of 1984 dated on 28.8.86 convicting the appellant under Section 7(i) (a) (ii) of the E.C. Act for violation of the provisions of West Bengal Kerosene Control Order, 1968 and directing him to undergo sentence of S.I. for four months and pay fine of Rs. 200/-, in default to suffer a further period of S.I. for one month.

(2.) The skeletal picture of the prosecution story narrated in the judgement is that on 27.9.84 a raiding party consisting of P.W. 4 Santosh K. Chakraborty, P.W. 5 Brojomohan Sengupta and P.W. 1 Bholanath Mondal, raided the business premises of the appellant's (hereinafter be called as accused) firm M/S. Progressive Kerosene Agency situated at 248, Panchanantala Road, P.S. Howrah. At that time they found that the accused Karu Das (since discharged) was present. On demand by the raiding party, he failed to produce the stock register, sale register, licence and other relevant documents. They served a notice upon the proprietor of the firm which was duly received by the said employee Karu Das for production of books of account. When the employee in spite of the notice failed to produce the books of account, the raiding party suspected about the conduct of the firm and insisted for physical verification of the stock which was displayed at the business premises. They found that it was shown to have possessed 454 litres of kerosene. But, on physical verification the raiding party found only 360 litres of kerosene oil in 3 barrels which were measured with the help of a `measuring rod'. Police seized those 3 barrels containing 360 litres of kerosene oil, iron rod and 34 empty drums and prepared the seizure list. One such copy of the seizure list was handed over to the other accused Karu Das who was taken to Howrah P.S. whereupon on the basis of a F.I.R. lodged by P.W. 4 a case was registered against them. The case against the accused with his other companions viz. Boka Babu and Karu Das was lodged under the provisions of West Bengal Kerosene Control Order, 1968, punishable under section 7(i) ( a) (ii) of the E.C. Act.

(3.) The accused claims to have been falsely implicated in this case by P.W. 4 and other official witnesses. The Learned Special Judge recorded a conviction and sentence against the accused while acquitting and discharging the other accused Boka Babu and Karu Das respectively.