MATI LAL CHANDRA Vs. EMPEROR

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This is an appeal from the judgment and sentence of the 2nd Presidency Magistrate of Calcutta who has convicted the appellants Mati Lal Chandra and Promotho Lal Chandra of transporting excisable articles from Chandernagore to Calcutta under Section 46, Act V of 1909, and of being in possession of excisable articles knowing the same to have been unlawfully imported under Section 52 of the same Act, both read with Section 55 of the Act, and sentenced them under Section 57 to a fine of Rs. 1,000 each, or in default to one month s rigorous imprisonment.

(2.) The facts are as follows: There is a manufactory of drugs known as the Indian Pharmacy Co. situate in French territory at Chandernagore within the compound of the distillery of the French Government. This factory is ostensibly owned by a lady named Giribala Dassi, widow of the gentleman who originally started the business.

(3.) The accused persons are her nephews, and the first is a pleader at Hooghly, and the second a clerk in the office of the Director of Commercial Intelligence in Calcutta. Their family house is at Chandernagore, but they seem to habitually reside in Calcutta. For the purposes of this case we may take it on the evidence, through the appellants disputed this, that these gentlemen both have an active interest in the management of the Chandernagore business. On the 29th August 1911 the accused No. 2 received an order from Messrs. B.K. Paul, wholesale and retail druggists in Calcutta, for three cases of tinctures consisting of 25 one- pound bottles of each of (i) tincture, of cinchona, (ii) tincture of cardamoms, (iii) spirits of nitric ether and (iv) tincture of ginger. This order is Exhibit B in the case, and is of some importance. It is headed "Indian Pharmacy," it is on a printed invoice slip of B.K. Paul and Co., and it says: "Please supply" the tinctures already mentioned, and is signed B.K. Paul and Co. admittedly by one Haridhan Nag, P.W. 2, who is manager and superintendent of the godown and signs for Messrs. B.K. Paul.