MUKBUL ALI Vs. EMPEROR

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The petitioner in this case has been convicted under Section 9, Clause (c), of the Opium Act, 1878, and sentenced to rigorous imprisonment for two months and a fine of Rs. 100.

(2.) The petitioner is a boatman who plies Shampan in the river Karnafully in Chitta-gong. On the date of occurrence he plied his boat and took over one Abdul Rashid, a resident of Halishahar, who is a Lascar of the steamship Minhla to the said steamer which was to start the next morning for Rangoon at 9 A.M. The Excise Officers, who had received information that opium would be smuggled by the crew of the steamer, kept watch and at 2 o clook in the night, the boat which was plied by the petitioner was seized by them. Thereupon, Abdul Rashid threw out a bundle into the khal, which was subsequently recovered and found to contain 4 seers of opium. Both Abdul Rashid and the petitioner were tried under Section 9, Clause (c), of the Opium Act. The former was sentenced to six months rigorous imprisonment with a fine of Rs. 300, and the latter to two months with a fine of Rs. 100.

(3.) The petitioner, admittedly, is a boatman and it is not suggested that the opium belonged to him. The information received by the Excise Officers was that the crew of the steamer would smuggle opium. Abdul Rashid was one of the crew. He carried opium in the boat and he has been rightly convicted. But we do not see how the petitioner, who is a boatman, can, in the circum-stances of the present case, be convicted under Section 9.