TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
2011 (3) TMI 1409
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....endent of Central Excise with his office at Piramal Chambers, Lalbaug, had received an information at about 2.45 p.m. from a known and reliable informant that a huge quantity of Hashish was likely to be transported in a tempo bearing No. MMS-432 from C.S.T. Road, Kurla to Mumbai for export purposes. The informant also had conveyed that the said tempo would be found at a place near Maha Auto Agency on C.S.T. Road at Kurla and that one Ambassador Car would follow and take away the said tempo. On receipt of the said information, Shri Karanjekar followed the due process of law and set out to lay a trap along with other officers like Shri Uttamrao Jadhav - PW 1 and others after obtaining the approval from the Assistant Collector. These officers left from office at about 3.30 p.m. on 31/7/1987 and proceeded towards the destination and when they reached the junction of C.S.T. Road and Agra Road at Kurla at about 3.55 p.m. they stopped their cars near the junction and kept a watch on the movements of the vehicles. After some time, they spotted the tempo bearing No. MMS 432 parked near Maha Auto Agency and it was being followed by an Ambassador Car bearing Registration No. MMH - 1640. They ....
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....y basis or evidence. The prosecution case was in two parts, namely, (a) the physical possession of Hashish by accused nos.1 and 3 on 31/7/1987 and its seizure by the team of the officers led by PW 6 and PW 1 and (b) the conspiracy at the instance of accused no.2 and with the involvement of accused nos.1 and 3. 4. The charge of conspiracy was solely based on the statements recorded under Section 108 of the Customs Act. The trial court noted that these statements could not be relied upon for the reasons, namely, (a) that the accused were in illegal detention when the statements were recorded, (b) the statements were recorded under duress and (c) the said statements were retracted at the earliest possible occasion when the accused were presented before the competent court i.e. on 4/8/1987. On the point of illegal detention, the evidence of PW 1 - Uttamrao Jadhav, PW 3 - Ramchandra Sapre, PW 4 - Karamoottil Philip and PW 6 - Shri Prabhakar Karanjekar has been considered by the trial court at length. In their examination-in-chief, PW 1 and PW 6 as well as PW 3 had denied that the accused were in illegal detention from 31/7/1987 till 4/8/1987 when they were produced before the co....
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....rom the tempo bearing Registration No. MMS-432 and by the team of the Central Excise officers and in the presence of two independent witnesses, namely, PW 2 - Shrikant Patil and Shri Satam, who was not examined. We have perused the depositions of PW 2 - Shrikant Patil. As per him, Satam was his friend and both of them met Shri Shantaram Jadhav in Kamani Engineering Works factory in connection with employment possibilities for PW 2 as he was unemployed. Both of them met Shri Jadhav and while they were returning, they saw a crowd of people near the Maha Auto Petrol Pump. The Central Excise Officers were trying to search for panchas, but nobody was willing and, therefore, PW 2 and his friend Satam showed their willingness to act as panchas. They were shown the cartons in the tempo and were asked to accompany the team of Central Excise Officers to their office in Lalbaug (Piramal Chambers). The tempo as well as the Ambassador Car was escorted and were brought to the office of the Central Excise along with the two vehicles used by the officers. All the 26 cartons were unloaded after the officers realized that they contained Hashish and were taken to the 8th Floor Office. Every carton wa....
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....ut that in the appearance of accused nos.1 and 2 there was a marked difference in as much as one was of fair complexion whereas the other one was dark. There was marked height difference between both of them. One was a baldy man whereas other one had sufficient hair on his head. It was also brought out in the crossexamination that he himself was convicted in a criminal case. We have meticulously gone through the reasons set out by the trial court while discarding PW 2 as a unreliable witness and we do not find any error in the same. 7. Once PW 2 is discarded as a reliable witness for the search and seizure operation, the evidence of the Central Excise officers alone would not meet the requirements of law in as much as the panchanama at Exh. 22 would not inspire confidence. The trial court did not stop here alone and proceeded to examine other attending circumstances. It was claimed by the prosecution that the registration papers of the tempo bearing Registration No. MMS-432 were recovered from the Ambassador Car bearing Registration No. MMH-1640. The prosecution did not take any further steps to locate the real owner of the tempo and the further connection of accused nos.1 ....