MAHAN SINGH Vs. THE STATE OF PUNJAB

JUDGEMENT

(1.) MAHAN Singh son of Mal Singh, resident of village Burj Hari Singh, police station Raikot, district Ludhiana, was convicted under section 9 of the Opium Act by the learned Judicial Magistrate 1st Class, Jagraon, by his judgment dated February 16, 1970, for having been found in possession of 20 kgs. of poppy husk in the area of village Nurpura, and sentenced to suffer rigorous imprisonment for six months. He was also convicted and sentenced to suffer rigorous imprisonment for one year in the second case under section 9 of the Opium Act by the same Magistrate, by his judgment of the same date The appeals filed by Mahan Singh, in both the cases, against his convictions, were heard by Shri O. P. Saini, Additional Sessions Judge, Ludhiana, and dismissed on 25th August, 1970. Being aggrieved with the judgments of the learned Additional Sessions Judge, Ludhiana, Mahan Singh has filed Criminal Revision Applications Nos. 732 and 731 of 1970 in this Court. Since the facts of both the cases are similar and recoveries were effected in the same transaction and the witnesses are the same, they will be disposed of by this single judgment.

(2.) THE prosecution story, briefly stated, is that on 27th June. 1969. Sub -Inspector Baldev Singh of police station Raikot accompanied by Shri Narain Dass, Excise Inspector, and Assistant Sub -Inspector Sadhu Singh of police post Sudhar, left Raikot at about 3.45 A.M. for conducting excise raids and when they were near village Nurpura, they saw Mahan Singh, the petitioner, coming carrying a bag on his head. He was apprehended by the police party and the bag was found to contain 20 kgs. of poppy husk. He was also having a scale and two weights. A sample was taken out of the bag and then both the sample and the remaining poppy husk in the bag were sealed. Ruqa was sent to the police station for the registration of the case on the basis of which first information report No. 93 was recorded.

(3.) ON receipt of the reports of the Chemical Examiner, in both the cases, that the samples were of poppy husk, two separate chalans in respect of both the recoveries, were submitted against Mahan Singh in the Court.