10. Power to enter and search any place and to seize articles and to arrest persons found in such place.—
If a Collector, a Presidency Magistrate, or a Magistrate of the first class, upon information received and after such inquiry, if any, as he considers necessary, has reason to believe that any place is used for the commission of an offence under this Act , he may, after recording the substance of the information, issue a warrant to an Excise Officer not below the rank of Sub-Inspector authorizing him—(a)to enter such place by day or night with such assistants as such officer may consider necessary; (b) to search all parts of such place in which such officer has reason to believe that any prepared opium or any apparatus for the smoking of such opium or for the manufacture thereof, is concealed and all or any persons whom he may find in such place;(c)to arrest any person found in such place whom he has reason to believe to be guilty of an offence under this Act; and(d)to seize all prepared opium and apparatus for the smoking or for the manufacture thereof which may be found in such place.
