JUDGMENT

The appellant before us is original accused No. 14. He was convicted bv the learned Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate, Bulsar under S. 135(1) of the Customs Act 1962 and was sentenced to rigorous imprisonment for five years.and to pay a fine of Rs. 5,.000/ -, in default, to suffer rigorous imprisonment for nine months. He appealed against his conviction to the High Court which affirmed the conviction by the impugned judgment dated 9th March, 1919. Aggrieved by the said decision of the High Court he has approached this Court under Art. 136 of the Constitution.

2. We have heard learned Counsel for the appellant/ accused at considerable length and we have perused the evidence to which he invited our attention carefully. In particular we have read the evidence of P. W. 4 Manubhai and P.W. 5 Abdul Gafur along with their previous statements recorded under S. 108 of the Customs Act, Ext. 56 dated 6th March, 1970 and Ext. 39 dated 5-3-1970, respectively. We have also perused the statement of Bashir (since deceased), original accused No. 13 produced at Ext. 61 dated 2nd April, 1970. In addition thereto we have taken note of the telephone tickets in respect of the calls made by B