BALMIKI PRASAD Vs. STATE OF BIHAR

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The Appellant has been convicted Under Section 7 of the Essential Commodities Act and sentenced to R.I. for five years by a judgment dated 4.8.1995 passed by the Special Judge, Saran, Chapra in Trial No. 22 of 1995.

(2.) The case of the prosecution is that on 1.3.1988 an information was received that imported palm oil was kept in the grocery shop of the Appellant presumably for black marketing, upon which a raid was made on the shop and 23 tins of palm oil containing 15 kgs each and 10 bags of flour each weighing 90 kgs were seized from the shop.

(3.) During trial the prosecution has examined four witnesses in all. Out of whom, P.W.1 is a lottery ticket seller, who had a shop adjacent to the Appellant, whereas P.W.2 is another shop keeper. P.W.3 is the Supply Inspector and P.W.4 is a formal witness. The defence also examined one witness, who was a cart driver. The Investigating Officer has not been examined nor has the informant been examined during trial. The only evidence that was adduced before the Trial Court was that of the two witnesses who were seizure witnesses. The defence of the Appellant was that he had indeed stored articles which belonged to somebody else and, therefore, no offence was made against him.