AMARJIT SINGH Vs. STATE OF BIHAR

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The prayer of the petitioner in this writ application is for quashing of the order dated 26-10-1999 as contained in Annexure-4, passed by the Deputy Commissioner, Singhbhum East at Jamshedpur whereby, in a proceeding under Section 6A of the Essential Commodities Act 1955, 196 Quintal of wheat and 174 Quintal of sugar said to be belonging to the petitioner was confiscated apart from the two trucks regarding which the petitioner has no concern.

(2.) The facts leading to the present case in short are that on 26-8-1998, an inspection was made in the premises of the petitioner at 8.00 A.M. and it was alleged that two trucks bearing Registration No. BR -14G 8058 and HR 29A 7688 were loaded with sugar on that. It is alleged that a substantial quantity of sugar was already unloaded from truck No. BR 14G 8058 and only 54 quintals of sugar remained on the truck whereas the dala of truck No. HR29A - 7688 was intact and on counting 97 bags were found on that. The truck driver Amarjit Pandey disclosed that both the trucks were loaded from the godown of Food Corporation of India and it was to be transported to Jhikpani Block but at the instance of Devendra Prasad Agarwal, it was taken to the shop of the petitioner. The shop of the petitioner was inspected in presence of one Babulal Sharma and it was alleged that during inspection 196 quintals 65 Kg. of wheat was found in the shop but no document was produced in respect of the wheat and it is alleged that no document was produced by the petitioner in respect of sugar loaded on the trucks. It is further alleged that 29 quintals of sugar were found in the shop. The sugar and wheat were seized along with the trucks. An F.I.R. was lodged with the Golmuri P.S. and it was registered as Golmuri P.S. Case No. 187/98 corresponding to G.R. No. 1615/98 and the petitioner was taken into custody on the date of occurrence itself.

(3.) There is no dispute of the fact that by order of the Supreme Court, the petitioner was granted bail and was released from the custody on 21-4-1999. Therefore, in between 26-8-1998 to 21-4-1999, the petitioner admittedly was in jail custody.