STATE OF HARYANA Vs. RUGHA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) BY this judgment we shall dispose of four appeals, namely, Criminal Appeals nos. 417, 418, 419 and 421 of 1966, instituted by the State against Rugha, gaphur, Indraj and Jumma respectively, all these persons being residents of village Jitpura situated in Rajas-than, challenging a similar number of Judgments passed by Shri K. C. Gupta, Chief Judicial Magistrate, Hissar, on the 27th of december, 1965, acquitting each of the respondents of an offence under Section 7 of the Essential Commodities Act, 1955 (hereinafter referred to as to the Act) read with the Punjab Gram (Regulation of Distribution) Order, 1964. We are taking them up together as they not only arise from a single occurrence but also involve identical evidence and questions of law.

(2.) THE prosecution case may be stated thus. On the 10th of August, 1965, assistant Sub-Inspector Jagdish Lal (P. W. 4) was heading a police party consisting of himself, Mani Ram (P. W. 3), two other non-officials named Ganpat and Baldeva, and a constable. The party arrived at a pond known as Johri Nilgiri situated on the punjab-Rajasthan border at about midnight and held a nakabandi there. At about 5. 00 A. M. (on the 11th August, 1955) the four respondents were seen coming from the side of village Basra, each holding a camel, on their way to Rajasthan. The police found the camels loaded with bags of gram, the quantity of the commodity being as follows in each case: rugha = 4 1/2 maunds gaphur = 5 maunds, indraj = 5 maunds, jumma = 5 maunds, all the camels along with the grams were secured by the Assistant Sub-Inspector who also arrested the four respondents as none of them had any permit for the export of grams from Punjab to Rajasthan. After the investigation had been completed, four reports in writing of the facts above-mentioned were made to the learned Chief Judicial Magistrate by Mohar singh, Sub-Inspector of Police, Police Station Sadar, Hissar (P. W. 1 ).

(3.) THE case of each of the respondents was that at the relevant time he was taking the grams in question on his camel for Bikhu Khan, as Imam of the mosque at balsmand situated in Punjab (D. W. 3) who had hired the respondent for this purpose. Three witnesses were produced in defence by each of the respondents. Barket, a resident of village Gorchhi, stated as D. W. 1 that the grams in question had been donated by himself and his co-villagers for the Balsmand mosque to Bikhu Khan (D. W. 3) who had arranged for their transport to Balsmand through the respondents who were intercepted by the police. Munshi (D. W. 2) made a similar deposition and claimed that he was one of the persons who gave grams as donation for the mosque. The testimony of Bikhu Khan (D. W. 3) also supported the version given by the respondents. All these witnesses, however, admitted that the rajasthan border does not fall on the way from village Gorchhi to village balsmand, the two of which lie at a distance of 4 kos from each other.