RAJ SINGH Vs. STATE OF HARYANA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) As identical questions of law & facts are involved, therefore, I propose to decide all the indicated criminal revision petitions, arising out of the same impugned judgments of conviction & order of sentence, in order to avoid the repetition.

(2.) Tersely, the facts & evidence, unfolded during the course of trial, culminating in the commencement, relevant for deciding the instant revision petitions and emanating from the record, are that, on 19.5.1999 at about 2.15 PM, as soon as, a police party headed by HC Munshi Ram (PW6) was present at Rao Dev Pal Chowk on Mohindergarh Road, Rewari, in the meantime, he received a secret information that petitioner convict Vikram and his father Sarjit, residents of village Ladhuwas, had brought pouches of licit liquor from Rajasthan and if a raid is conducted, then, they could be nabbed. Believing the information credible, the police party constituted a raiding party and joined Excise Inspector Ram Lal (PW5), who had met it by chance. The raiding party conducted the search of the house and found petitioner-convicts unloading the liquor from the vehicle. Petitioner-convict Vikram was stated to have fled away from the place of occurrence after seeing the police party, whereas petitioner convicts Sarjit and Raj Singh were apprehended at the spot. It was claimed that in the wake of checking, four bags were recovered from the vehicle and seven bags containing 200 pouches each, of licit liquor were recovered from the house of Vikram. One pouch was separated and sealed as a sample from each bag. The sample and remaining liquor were separately sealed and taken into possession by the police, vide recovery memos.

(3.) Leveling a variety of allegations and narrating the sequence of events, in all, the prosecution claimed that 2200 pouches of licit liquor were recovered from the possession of the petitioner-convicts without any permit or licence. In the background of these allegations and in pursuance of the indicated recovery, a criminal case was registered against the petitioner-convicts, by means of FIR No.96 dated 19.5.1999 on accusation of having committed an offence punishable under section 61 (1)(a) of the Punjab Excise Act, 1914 (hereinafter to be referred as "the Act") by the police of Police Station Sadar Rewari in the manner depicted here-in-above.