HAOBAM NONGYAI SINGH Vs. THOUNAOJAM BUDHA SINGH

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THIS is a petition under Sections 439 and 561 -A, Criminal Procedure Code for quashing the proceedings made by the First Class Magistrate, Bishenpur, in Criminal Miscellaneous Case No. 86 of 1959.

(2.) THE petitioner herein purchased 3 buffaloes from one Oinam Tomba Singh on 27.5.1959 under Ext. B/2. On 9.7.1959, he made an oral complaint to the O/C., Bishenpur Police Station stating that he had kept the buffaloes in charge of Oinam Tomba Singh after purchase, that on 6.7.1959 he demanded the buffaloes from the said Tomba Singh, that on receiving an evasive answer he got suspicious and he made a search for the buffaloes and found two of them in the residence of one Ibopisak Singh, who on enquiry stated that the buffaloes were kept with him by the respondent Budha Singh and that on questioning, Budha Singh told the petitioner that the two buffaloes were sold to him by Oinam Tomba Singh. He therefore prayed for action against the said Tomba Singh.

(3.) THE Police registered the case under Section 406, I. P. C. as F. I. R. No. 54 (7) 59. In the course of the investigation, the A. S. I. of Bishenpur Police Station seized the two buffaloes from Ibopisak Singh on 10.7.1959. We have to take it that this seizure was effected by the A. S. I. under Section 550, Criminal Procedure Code as property found under circumstances which created suspicion of the commission of an offence. When such a seizure was made by a Police Officer his duty was to report the seizure forthwith to the Magistrate under Section 523, Criminal Procedure Code, but this A. S. I. Bhubon Singh of Bishenpur Police Station probably knew only of his rights under the Criminal Procedure Code as a Police Officer, but did not know of his duties under the same Code. What he did was to entrust the seized buffaloes quite unauthorisedly to the petitioner herein pending investigation in the complaint filed by him. It was highly wrong on the part of the A. S. I. to have taken the law into his own hands and to have disposed of the property seized by him without any orders of a Magistrate and without even reporting the seizure to a Magistrate.