Judgment

M.K. Mukherjee, J.-This appeal under Section 19 of the Terrorist and Disruptive Activities (Prevention) Act, 1987 (‘TADA’ for short) is directed against the judgment and order dated July 22, 1997 of the Designated Court II, Delhi convicting the appellant for an offence under Section 5 of TADA and sentencing him to suffer rigorous impris­onment for 5 years and to pay a fine of Rs. 1,000/-, and in default of payment of fine to undergo rigorous imprisonment for 2 months more.

2. According to the prosecution case, in the afternoon of March 8, 1990, Sub Inspector Gopi Chand (P.W. 6) of I.S.B.T. (Inter-State Bus Terminus) police post along with Assistant Sub-Inspector Chander Bhan (P.W. 5) and other police personnel was on patrolling duty at the inner gate of I.S.B.T. When they were checking the luggage of passengers they saw the appellant alighting from a bus with a rexin bag. Seeing them he tried to move away briskly. P.W. 6 apprehended him on suspicion and found, on search of his bag, 3 country-made pistols and 12 cartridges. He seized those articles under a memo and put them in sepa­rate sealed packets. Along with those articles he forwarded a report to the Kashmere Gate Poli