UNION OF INDIA Vs. LANKAPALI PRAVAKAR RAO

JUDGEMENT

(1.) IN this appeal under Section 378, Criminal Procedure Code, the Union of India represented by the Collector, Customs and Central Excise, Bhubaneswar, assails the judgment of the Additional Sessions Judge, Cuttack, in Criminal Appeal No. 131 of 1980 reversing the decision of the Chief Judicial Magistrate, Cuttack in 2(c) C. C. Case No. 18 of 1974 and acquitting the respondents. The respondents were charged under Section 86(1)(ii) of the Gold (Control) Act, 1968 (hereinafter referred to as 'the Act'), for having been found to be in unlawful possession of quantities of primary gold in contravention of Section 8(1) of the Act on the night of April 15, 16, 1974, in the running Madras Howrah Mail at Cuttack Railway Station. The detection was made when the Superintendent (Preventive), Central Excise, Cuttack (PW 1) and the Inspector of Central Excise, Cuttack (PW 2) along with other officials of the Department rummaged the Madras Howrah Mail at Cuttack Railway Station on getting information that contraband gold was being carried by the accused persons. As a result of the search, 2,344 grams of primary gold in six lumps were seized from the possession of Lankapali Pravakar Rao, respondent No. 1, and 4,586.100 grams of primary gold in twenty lumps contained in four packets were seized from the possession of Kolla Nanaji, respondent No. 2. By the time the search was over, the train had left the Cuttack Railway Station and, therefore, the respondents and their companions (discharged for want of evidence) were made to get down in the next railway stoppage, that is, Jaipur Koonjhar Road. There, in the presence of two witnesses including Natabarlal Gambhir Das (PW 4), 4,586.100 grams of primary gold were seized from K. Nanaji under the seizure list (exhibit 11), 2,344 grams of primary gold were seized from the possession of accused L. Pravakar Rao under the seizure list (exhibit 6) and four railway tickets and one reservation ticket were seized from one of the companions of the accused persons, namely, P. Narasimha Rao, under the seizure list (exhibit 12). The accused persons as well as their companions gave their statements written out in their own hands in Telugu marked as exhibits 1 to 4. In their statements, both the accused persons admitted that they were carrying the gold recovered from their possession to Calcutta as per the direction of one P. Krishna Rao of Srikakulam, in the company of P. NarasihmaRao and P. Prakash Rao, but the latter two persons, in their statements, denied their knowledge about possession of gold by the accused persons. Since possession of gold by the accused persons was without any authority, a prosecution report, was submitted against them as also their two companions by Y. Puma Chandra Senapati, the Assistant Collector, Central Excise, Cuttack (PW 5), who was authorised by the Collector of Central Excise under the document (exhibit 5) to submit the said report. By order dated, April 9, 1975, the two companions of the accused persons, viz., P. Narasimha Rao and P. Prakash Rao, were discharged and the said order was upheld in revision by this court.

(2.) BOTH the accused persons admitted recovery of the specific quantities or gold from their respective possession, but they denied having committed any offence. Their defence as evident from their statements under Section 313, Criminal Procedure Code, was that the gold recovered from their possession belonged to sixteen goldsmiths of Srikakulam who had sent the accused L. Prabhakar Rao to Calcutta for die casting and preparation of ornaments and that accused K. Nanaji was merely giving his company to the other accused persons. As regards the statements given by them in their own hand before PW 1, their plea was that the same were obtained under threat and coercion.

(3.) ON behalf of the defence, 18 witnesses were examined of whom DWs 1 to 8 and DWs 10 to 16 were said to be the 15 goldsmiths who, along with another goldsmith, P. Ananta Chari (since dead) entrusted the gold seized from the accused, Prabhakar Rao. PW 17 was a jewellery merchant of Srikakulam who proved the account books (exhibit H) maintained by the goldsmith, P. Ananta Chari, showing delivery of 506.600 grams of gold to accused L. Prabhakar Rao and also the account books (exhibits J to R) of DWs 1 to 8 and DW 18 was a resident of Calcutta who claimed to have received a letter from accused L. Prabhakar Rao in April, 1974, requesting to see him at Howrah Railway Station some time in April, 1974.