STATE OF H.P. Vs. RAMESH CHAND

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The respondent was prosecuted, under Section 61(1)(a) of the Punjab Excise Act, as applicable to the State of Himachal Pradesh, for allegedly carrying 12 bottles of Indian made Foreign Liquor on 21.3.1993 near Bus Stand, Sujanpur.

(2.) The learned trial Court in Excise Case No. 12 -111 of 1993, vide its detailed judgment dated 15.11.1997 acquitted the respondent on the ground that the police party did not include the independent witnesses during the search of the respondent, as required under Section 100 (4) of the Code of Criminal Procedure to inspire confidence in prosecution case and further that the alleged offensive material could not be proved to be in his exclusive and conscious possession.

(3.) Feeling aggrieved and dissatisfied by the impugned judgment of acquittal, the appellant -State has filed the instant appeal on the ground that the learned trial Court did not appreciate the evidence of the official witnesses in the right perspective and the conclusions arrived at in the judgment are such which could not have been possibly arrived at had the court appreciated the evidence in its right perspective.