Section 281 in Rules under the United Provinces Excise Act, 1910
281. Arrests, searches, challans and evidence.
- Particular attention is drawn to the following points connected with investigation of offences :(a)All offences under the Excise Act are bailable.(b)Any person arrested, if not released on bail must be set to an officer-in-charge of police station for custody as soon as possible along with article seized, if any, accompanied by a forwarding letter in Form D-19-C.(c)Search-warrant in Form D-18 should be obtained in all cases as provided for in Section 52 of the Excise Act. In case where a search warrant can be obtained without affording the offender an opportunity to escape or of concealing evidence of the offence, search may be made without warrant, but the grounds of belief should be recorded in the form of a memorandum before entering tire place to be searched.(d)It is imperative that the provisions of Section 103 of the Criminal Procedure Code be strictly and carefully observed in respect of selection of search witnesses. Should an Excise Inspector, however, entertain apprehension that witnesses of the locality, wherein he contemplates taking search, would be won over, he may take witness from elsewhere for witnessing, search. Witnesses taken from other places must, however, be independent of him, respectable and fairly responsible.Whenever such witnesses are secured, the Excise Inspector should, further, adduce evidence during trial of the case substantiating the grounds of his apprehension. Notwithstanding such witnesses, the Excise Inspector should invariably call witness of the locality also, for witnessing search. Evidence of witnesses other than those residing in the locality searched is not debarred by Section 103 of Criminal Procedure Code, if otherwise trustworthy, nor does this section expressly lay down that evidence of local witnesses must be led even if they are suspected of complicity with the accused.(e)All articles recovered in the course of a search should be entered in the search list prepared on the spot under Section 103, Criminal Procedure Code. This list shall ordinarily be in Form D-19-A, but when a printed form is not available a list containing all the necessary particulars should be prepared in manuscript. All intoxicants so recovered must at once be carefully packed labelled (in Form D-19-B) and sealed, in the presence of the search-witnesses who should, if literate, sign the labels affixed to each article. The seals should be shown to them and their signatures secured on the endorsement at the foot of search-list, and during trial of the case they should be called upon to prove their signatures.(f)Whenever an accused person intimates his desires to confess to his part in an offence, the confession should promptly be got recorded by a Magistrate of the first class under Section 164 of the Criminal Procedure Code.(g)Where there is reason to believe that witness in any prosecution may be won over or subjected to undue influence before their evidence can be heard, application should be made to a Magistrate of the first class for prompt record of their statement under Section 164 of the Criminal Procedure Code.(h)As investigation in most Excise cases is usually completed at the time of detection, report regarding the case detected will normally be submitted in Form D-22-A, D-22-B or D-22-C (whichever be applicable) within a week of detection.
