MANORANJAN PANDA Vs. STATE OF ORISSA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This criminal appeal is directed against the judgment and Order Dated 29.06.2002 passed by the Learned Special Judge, Balasore convicting the Appellant under Sections 20(b)(i) and 18 of the Narcotic Drugs And Psychotropic Substances Act and sentencing him to undergo rigorous imprisonment for five years and to pay a fine of Rs. 50,000.00 in default to undergo rigorous imprisonment for two years for the offence under Sec. 20(b)(i) of the Narcotic Drugs And Psychotropic Substances Act; and to undergo rigorous imprisonment for ten years and to pay fine of Rs. 1,00,000.00, in default to undergo rigorous imprisonment for a further period of three years for the offence under Sec. 18 of the Narcotic Drugs And Psychotropic Substances Act; the sentences to run concurrently.

(2.) Case of the prosecution is that the Officer-in-charge, Soro P.S. received reliable information at about 6.20 P.M. on 27.02.2001 that the Appellant was possessing and selling ganja in his house without any authority, made entry to that effect vide Station Diary Entry No. 623, intimated the said fact to the higher authorities, requisitioned services of an Executive Magistrate, as it was evening hours, to remain present at the time of search and seizure, and proceeded to the spot along with the Addl.Tahasildar-cum-Executive Magistrate, Inspector Narayan Panda, Havildar Dinabandhu Patra, constables Basanta Kumar Jena, Pradip Kumar Behera, Aita Ekka, Ramachandra Pradhan, woman constable Sukanti Das and the APR force of Reserve Office, Balasore. Having reached there, he made the Appellant aware of their intention to search his house and the ground of their search, gave their personal search to the independent witnesses, namely, Keshab Dhada and Purna Chandra Mohapatra and being allowed by the Appellant entered into his house for search. In course of search, some ganja and opium were found kept in the storeroom of the house of the Appellant. On weighment by witness Purna Chandra Mohapatra by the weighing balance kept in the said storeroom, the recovered Ganja came to 46.400 KGs and the recovered Opium came to 370 grams. Two samples of 50 grams each from the ganja and also equal number of samples of 20 grams each from the opium were drawn. The samples and remaining Ganja and Opium were separately packed, labeled and sealed in presence of the witnesses and seal was made over to witness Purina Chandra Mohapatra under proper zimanama. Copy of the seizure list was also handed over to the Appellant. Then, the Appellant was arrested, taken to Soro P.S. along with the seized articles and handed over to the custody of S.I. Shri S.K. Behera (P.W.7) with a direction to investigate into the case. After closure of investigation, charge-sheet was submitted under the above Sections against the Appellant.

(3.) The plea of the Appellant is complete denial of the allegations.