BIRA KISHORE KAR Vs. STATE

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Present appeal has been filed against the judgment and order of sentence passed by the Sessions Judge, Balasore, in Sessions Trial No. 68 of 1992 convicting and sentencing the accused-appellant under section 15 of the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act (hereinafter referred to as 'the N.D.P.S. Act') to undergo rigorous imprisonment for 10 years and to pay a fine of Rs. 1,00,000.00, in default of payment of fine, to undergo further rigorous imprisonment for one year.

(2.) Prosecution case, in brief, is that Sapan Kumar Das, Inspector of Excise, Bala (P.W.1) along with his staff was patrolling at the Balasore Railway Station on the night between 18-9-1991 and 19-9-1991 for detection of cases. At about 1.15 A.M. on 19-5-1991, Howrah-Puri Sri Jagannath Express Train No. 8409 arrived at the platform no. 1. During checking of that train, P.W. 1 found that four persons were sitting on four bags in the general compartment No. G.S. 5506 near the passage of the lavatory and there was smell of opium. He asked all the four persons to bring down their bags. After they brought them down, he checked the contents thereof with the help of the G.R.FB staff. Accused Bira Kishore Kar was transporting 10 Kgs. of poppy straw in a plastic bag (M.D.I). He seized the same as per seizure list (Ext.1). After weighment he took 150 gms. of poppy straw separately by way of sample and sealed it with a paper seal (M.O. I/1) He sent the same for chemical examination through the Sessions Judge, Balasore. The Chemical Examiner, State Drugs Control and Research Laboratory, Bhubaneswar, sub-Titted his report under Ext. 3 opining that the sample was poppy straw. As the accused had no authority to possess or transport the poppy straw, P.W.1 filed prosecution report under section 15 of the N.D.P.S. Act against the accused.

(3.) The accused denied the charge and waded not guilty. He has been examined under section 313 Crimial P.C. The defence case is fiat the accused being a leper, went to Calcutta thing medicine and the Excise Police falsely implicated him while he was returning by Jagannath Express Train on the date of occurrence.