CURATED BY – DHEERAJ KUMAR AHIRWAL | CITYCHIEFNEWS

Damoh, Additional Sessions Judge Santosh Kumar Gupta, while deciding a twelve year old case under the Excise Act, has convicted two accused of illegally transporting liquor and sentenced them to imprisonment and fine and the vehicle owner accused to fine. The case was argued on behalf of the government by Government Advocate Rajiv Badri Singh Thakur.

According to the prosecution, the case is as follows, on 9 June 2012, the police of Nohta police station received information that some people were taking liquor in a Bolero car near village Talagaon for sale in the village located there. On the said information, Nohta police station reached village Talagaon and surrounded and caught a Bolero car in which accused Devi Singh father Ratan Singh resident Balakot, Rasheed Khan alias Kuddu father Kunnu Khan resident Sitabawali were sitting. When the police searched the vehicle, they found liquor in 14 cartons. When the police asked them for documents regarding the liquor, they said that they did not have the documents at that time. The police arrested the accused and brought them to the police station. On the second day, the police received a permit issued by the District Excise Officer regarding the transportation of liquor, in which it was stated that the liquor is being transported from the Abhana liquor shop to the Hridaypur liquor shop after obtaining the permit, but the police caught this Bolero vehicle carrying liquor on a different route from the one mentioned in the permit, which was to be taken from the Abhana liquor shop to the Hridaypur liquor shop. The police considered the permit itself suspicious and forged, also believed that this permit was made false in connivance with the officials after the liquor was seized. In its investigation, the police reached the point that the licensees of the Abhana liquor shop and the Hridaypur liquor shop go from village to village and sell liquor illegally. The police presented the case in the court by making the licensees of both the liquor shops along with the manager Sanjay father Shivkumar Yadav resident Amchopara, Kamlesh father Shyamale Patel resident Damoh and the vehicle owner Shailesh Sharma father Subhash Sharma resident Abhana as accused. When the matter came before the court, the accused told the court that they had obtained permit from the Abhana liquor shop and were taking the liquor to the Hridaypur shop. They were going on the route prescribed by the permit but some people intimidated them and changed their route. After hearing all the parties, the court sentenced the accused Devi Singh and Rashid Khan to one year of rigorous imprisonment and a fine of Rs 50,000 each and the vehicle owner Shailesh Sharma to a fine of Rs 3,000 for using a privately registered vehicle for commercial purposes and wrote in the judgment that the presented permit has been issued by the appropriate officer, but more liquor than the quantity of liquor given in the permit has been caught in the vehicle and liquor has been caught on a route other than the one mentioned in the permit, in such a case, it would be appropriate to hold the accused carrying the liquor guilty, but acquitting the manager and licensees of the liquor shop, it was accepted that they cannot be held guilty because the licensee will be responsible for only those acts of his servants that have been done by him in the liquor shop or have been done in accordance with the granted license or permit and not for any other type of act of the servant.