9911796707
TMI Blog2010 (4) TMI 1042X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... W-4], who was the then Station House Officer [for short "SHO"] of the Police Station, Ghagga accompanied by Sub-Inspector Ajaib Singh, Assistant Sub- Inspector Surinderpaljit Singh [PW-3] and constables, viz., Faqir Chand, Kulwant Singh and other police officials were present at village Shahpur and were going around in the course of their routine duty of checking of the religious places in the said village. It was during the course of patrolling that they also visited a temple of Udasi Community on Shahpur Tilla and saw that on the nearby passage a man and woman were sitting on some plastic bags. As soon as the respondents saw the police party, they tried to hide themselves behind the said bags. On seeing the aforesaid conduct of the respondents, the police party became suspicious and therefore approached them to enquire from them their identity. Respondent no. 1 gave his name as Lakhwinder Singh @ Lakha whereas the woman [respondent no. 2] disclosed her name as Balwinder Kaur. 3. The SHO [PW-4] then informed the respondents about his suspicion of the said bags containing contraband and also of his intention to conduct a search of the bags. Accordingly, PW-4 offered them as to whe ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... eas the defence examined none. The respondents were examined under Section 313 CrPC. 6. Upon completion of the trial, the learned Judge, Special Court, Patiala passed a judgment and order dated 07.07.2005 whereby the trial Court convicted the respondents herein under Section 15 of the NDPS Act and sentenced them as aforesaid. 7. Being aggrieved by the aforesaid judgment and order of conviction and sentence, the respondents herein filed an appeal before the High Court of Punjab and Haryana. The High Court after hearing the parties passed a judgment and order dated 20.08.2007 allowing the appeal filed by the respondents herein. The Division Bench of the High Court set aside the order of conviction and sentence passed by the trial Court and acquitted the respondents of all the charges. Being aggrieved by the aforesaid order of acquittal, the present appeal was filed by the State of Punjab on which we have heard the learned counsel appearing for the parties. 8. The counsel appearing for the State submitted before us that the order of acquittal is palpably wrong and perverse. It was also submitted that the findings recorded by the High Court that there were glaring discrepancies in t ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... Court in several decisions. The first case in point of time to which our attention was drawn is the decision in the case of Inder Sain v. State of Punjab reported in (1973) 2 SCC 372. In the said decision also this Court was called upon to answer the question as to whether the appellant was in possession of opium. In the said decision, this Court held that the word "possess" connotes some sort of knowledge about the thing possessed. It was also held that the prosecution must prove that accused was in control of something in the circumstances which showed that he was assenting to being in control of it. This Court further held that once it is proved by the prosecution that the accused was in physical custody of opium, it is for the accused to prove statutorily that he has not committed an offence by showing that he was not knowingly in possession of opium. Thus, the burden of proving the fact that the accused was not knowingly in possession of the contraband would lie on the shoulders of the accused person. 11.Section 15 of the NDPS Act makes possession of contraband articles an offence. Section 15 appears in Chapter IV of the Act which relates to the offence of possession of popp ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... at the contraband was contained in the bags which were kept in the possession of the respondents. There were separate memos prepared and each one of them is signed by the two respondents respectively and separately. The aforesaid documents, therefore, clearly establish that the respondents were in possession of the said contraband. The evidence adduced by both the Sub-Inspectors as also by the Assistant Sub- Inspector examined as PW-3 and PW-4 also prove and establish that both the respondents were in conscious possession of the contraband goods. So far as the seizure of the contraband goods is concerned, the discrepancies pointed out by the High Court in our opinion are very minor and they are not very material. The prosecution has been able to establish and prove that the aforesaid bags which were 35 in number contained poppy husk and accordingly the same were seized after taking samples therefrom which were properly sealed. The defence has not been able to prove that the aforesaid seizure and seal put in the samples were in any manner tampered with before it was examined by the Chemical Examiner. There was merely a delay of about seven days in sending the samples to the Forensic ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
|
