Delhi District Court
State vs Pooran Lal on 13 February, 2025
IN THE COURT OF SH. DEEPAK KUMAR-I
CHIEF JUDICIAL MAGISTRATE, EAST DISTRICT,
KARKARDOOMA COURTS, DELHI
DLET020171672022
FIR No. 273/2020
PS Kalyanpuri
Unique Case ID No. 6595/2022
Title State Vs. Pooran Lal
Name of complainant Ct. Sachin
Name of accused Pooran Lal
S/o Sh. Sampat
R/o 7/438, Jhuggi Khichripur,
Delhi.
Date of institution of challan 06.10.2022
Date of Reserving judgment 01.02.2025
Date of pronouncement 13.02.2025
Date of commission of offence 05.07.2020
Offence complained of U/s. 33 Delhi Excise Act
Offence charged with U/s. 33 Delhi Excise Act
Plea of the accused Pleaded not guilty
Final order Acquitted
JUDGMENT
BRIEF REASONS FOR THE DECISION OF THE CASE:-
Digitally signed by DEEPAKDEEPAK KUMAR KUMAR Date:
2025.02.13 15:30:19 +0530
01. In the present case, prosecution has alleged that on 05.07.2020 at about 9.35 p.m. at 7 Block Jhuggi, near Central School, Khichripur, Delhi, accused Pooran Lal was apprehended and found in possession of 150 quarters of bottles of illicit liquor bearing label 'Santra Masaledar Desi Sharab Bonded Liquor 180 FIR No. 273/2020 State Vs. Pooran Lal Page No. 1 of 7 ml' as per seizure memo Ex. PW1/A, without any license or permit in contravention of Delhi Excise Act. Accordingly, investigation was carried out and charge sheet was filed before the Court U/s. 33 Delhi Excise Act.
02. Accused appeared before this Court and after compliance of Section 207 IPC, charge was framed against the accused vide order dated 03.12.2024 u/s 33 Delhi Excise Act, to which the accused pleaded not guilty and claimed trial.
03. On the aforesaid charge, the prosecution examined three witnesses i.e. Ct. Sachin as PW1, Ct. Subhash as PW2 and ASI manoj Kumar Rana as PW3. Accused claimed false implication by the police and did not lead any defence evidence. Both the sides have been heard.
Digitally signed by DEEPAK DEEPAK KUMAR
04. PW1 is Ct. Sachin, who has deposed that on KUMAR Date:
2025.02.13 15:30:33 +0530
05.07.2020, he along with Ct. Subhash was on beat patrolling duty near-07 Block DDA land, Khichripur. He deposed that at around 09.35 PM, they reached near, Khichripur, Delhi and saw a person coming from the side of Central School Khichripur with white colour katta on his shoulder. He further deposed that on seeing them, he turned back and tried to run away but they apprehended him after chasing. He further deposed that on search, they found one plastic katta with illicit liquor contained in three patties and on inquiry, the said person disclosed his name as Puran Lal. He deposed that he informed the duty officer regrading the apprehension and recovery of illicit liquor and after some time IO HC Manoj arrived at the spot. He deposed that they handed over the custody of illicit liquor and accused to IO HC FIR No. 273/2020 State Vs. Pooran Lal Page No. 2 of 7 Manoj and briefed him about the matter. He further deposed that on counting, they found 3 gatta patties, each containing 50 bottles with description Santra Masaledar Desi Sarab totally 150 bottles. He deposed that IO HC Manoj took out one bottle from each katta by way of sample and sealed with the seal of MKR and gave the sample mark S1 and S3 remaining 147 bottles of illicit liquor were kept back in the said three gatta patties and sealed with the seal of MKR and after use, seal was handed over to Ct. Subhash. He deposed that IO HC Manoj filled the Form M-29, prepared seizure memo Ex. PW1/A, recorded his complaint Ex. PW1/B and after preparing Rukka handed over the same to him for registration FIR. He further deposed that he went to PS, got the FIR registered and returned back to spot. He further deposed that IO HC Manoj prepared the site plan Ex. PW1/C and arrested the accused vide arrest memo Ex. PW1/D. He deposed that after completing all the formalities, they all returned to PS, case property was deposited at Malkhana and after medical examination, accused was kept in custody. Further, deposed that thereafter, 1O/HC Manoj recorded his supplementary statement u/s. 161 Cr.PC.
Digitally signed by
05. PW2 is Ct. Subhash, who deposed on the same lines DEEPAK DEEPAK KUMAR KUMAR Date:
2025.02.13 15:30:43 as deposed by PW1 ct. Sachin. +0530
06. PW3 is ASI Manoj Kumar Rana, who deposed that on 05.07.2020, Duty Officer had marked to him DD No. 111-A Ex. A-3 and thereafter, he went to the spot i.e. 7 Block Jhuggi, Khichripur, near Central School, where he met Ct. Sachin and Ct. Subhash alongwith apprehended accused namely Puran Lal and FIR No. 273/2020 State Vs. Pooran Lal Page No. 3 of 7 the recovered case property i.e. illicit liquor in white plastic katta. He deposed that Ct. Sachin had informed him about the recovery of the illicit liquor from the accused and handed over the custody of accused to him. He further deposed that on checking the katta, he found three gatta petties containing illicit liquor and on counting the same, there were 50 quarter bottles each of illicit liquor in each gatta pettie with description of 'Himmat Santra Masaledar Desi Sharab 180 ml' 150 in total. He further deposed that he took out one bottle each for sample from each gatta petty and gave serial No A-1, A-2 and A-3 and sealed the sample with the seal of M.K.R., remaining quarter bottles were kept back in the said plastic katta. He gave the serial No. S-1, S-2 and S-3 to the same and sealed it with the help of white cloth and put the seal of M.K.R. He further deposed that seal after use, was handed over to Ct. Subhash. He deposed that he filled the Form-29 Ex. PW3/A, seized the case property vide seizure memo Ex. PW1/A, recorded the statement Ex. PW1/B of Ct. Sachin, prepared the rukka Ex. PW3/B on the same and handed over to Ct. Sachin for registration of FIR. He further deposed that Ct. Sachin went to PS, got the FIR registered, came at the spot and handed over the copy of FIR and original rukka to him. He further deposed to Digitally signed by DEEPAK have prepared the site plan PW1/C at the instance of Ct. Sachin, DEEPAK KUMAR Date:
KUMAR 2025.02.13 15:30:53 +0530 arrested the accused vide arrest memo Ex. PW1/D, conducted personal search of accused vide Ex. PW3/C and recorded the disclosure statement Ex. PW3/D of accused. He further deposed that accused was taken to LBS hospital for his medical examination and thereafter, brought to PS, case property was deposited in PS Malkhana and thereafter, he recorded the statement of witnesses u/s. 161 Cr.PC. He deposed that he sent FIR No. 273/2020 State Vs. Pooran Lal Page No. 4 of 7 the case property to the FSL for analysis and collected the result of analysis from Excise Laboratory Ex. A-4 on 11.09.2020. He further deposed that after completing the investigation, he had prepared the charge sheet and filed before the Court.
07. Thereafter the statement of accused U/s 313 Cr.PC was recorded wherein he refuted the allegations levelled against him in toto. Accused chose not to lead any defence evidence in his favour.
08. I have heard the rival submissions and carefully perused the record.
09. In a criminal trial, the onus remains on the prosecution to prove the guilt of accused beyond all reasonable doubts and benefit of doubt, if any, must necessarily go in favour of the accused. It is for the prosecution to travel the entire distance from may have to must have. If the prosecution appears to be improbable or lacks credibility the benefit of doubt necessarily has to go to the accused.
10. In the present case, as per prosecution witnesses i.e. PW1, PW2 and PW3, the public persons were requested to join the investigation of the case, but, none of them agreed as stated by them. No written notice was served admittedly upon them to Digitally signed by DEEPAK join the proceedings in the present case or to face action U/sec. DEEPAK KUMAR Date:
KUMAR 2025.02.13
15:31:02
+0530
187 IPC. Further, PW1, PW2 and PW3 have admitted that no videography of search, seizure and arrest proceedings were made despite they were having mobile phone with the feature of FIR No. 273/2020 State Vs. Pooran Lal Page No. 5 of 7 videography. Therefore, it is clear that sincere efforts were not made to join independent witnesses despite their availability which causes a serious dent in the story of the prosecution . The reliance is placed on Anoop Joshi Vs. State 1992 (2) C.C. Cases 314 (HC), Roop Chand Vs. The State of Haryana 199 (1) C.L.R. 69 and Sadhu Singh Vs. State of Punjab 1997 (3) Crime 55.
11. The seal after sealing the case property and the sample was not handed over to any independent person which creates a doubt on the sample as whether the same were intact and not tampered with. In the judgment of Ramji Singh Vs. State of Haryana 2007 (3) R.C.R. (Criminal) 452, the Hon'ble Punjab and Haryana High Court held in Para 7 as :
"The very purpose of giving seal to an independent person is to avoid tampering of the case property. It is well settled that till the case property is not dispatched to the forensic science laboratory, the seal should not be available to the prosecuting agency and in the absence of such a safeguard the possibility of seal, contraband and the samples being tampered with cannot be ruled out".
12. In the present case, as per the prosecution witness, the FIR was registered after the seizure memo was prepared but the seizure memo Ex. PW1/A bears the particulars of the FIR which creates a doubt in the case of the prosecution.
Digitally signed by DEEPAK DEEPAK KUMAR
13. Even no statutory presumption in terms of section KUMAR Date:
2025.02.13 15:31:11 +0530 52 of the Act, can be drawn against accused as the alleged recovery of liquor from the accused has become doubtful in view of the reasons mentioned above.
FIR No. 273/2020 State Vs. Pooran Lal Page No. 6 of 7 ORDER
14. In view of the above, in my considered opinion, prosecution has failed to prove the guilt of the accused beyond reasonable doubt. Accordingly, I acquit the accused Pooran Lal for the offence u/s 33 Delhi Excuse Act. Case property, if any, be forfeited to the State and be destroyed as per rules after appeal.
15. File be consigned to Record Room after due compliance.
Digitally signed by Dictated directly into the computer DEEPAK DEEPAK KUMAR and announced in the open Court, KUMAR Date:
2025.02.13 on 13th February, 2024. 15:31:19 +0530 (DEEPAK KUMAR-1) Chief Judicial Magistrate East/Karkardooma Courts/Delhi FIR No. 273/2020 State Vs. Pooran Lal Page No. 7 of 7