JUDGMENT

Vishnudeo Narayan, J.— This appeal at the instance of the appellants is directed against the impugned judgment and order dated 25.7.1995 and 31.7.1995 respective­1y passed in Sessions Trial No. 272 of 1992 by Shri Dilip Kumar Sinha, 2nd Additional Sessions Judge, Hazaribagh whereby and where under the appellants were found guilty for the offence punishable under Sections 25(l)(c) and 26(2) of the Arms Act, 1959 and they were convicted and sentenced to undergo rigorous imprisonment for five years for the offence punishable under Sec­tion 25(l)(c) and they were further sentenced to undergo rigorous imprison­ment for a period of five years for the offence under Section 26(2) of the said Act and the sentences were ordered to run con­currently. However, both the appellants were not found guilty of the offence under Section 5 of the Explosive Substance Act and they were accordingly acquitted in respect thereof.

2. The prosecution case has arisen on the basis of self report of PW 1 Sham­bhunath Singh Vir, SI, Sadar Police Station, Hazaribagh recorded on 1-12-1991 at 20.15 hours in front of the pre-mises of Bihar State Transport Corpo-ration at Patna-Ranchi road regarding the occur­rence which is said to have taken place at 19.00 hours on that very day at northern gate of old bus stand at Hazaribagh and a case was instituted against the appellants by drawing of a formal first information report on that very day at 21.00 hours which was received in the Court on 4.12.1991 empowered to take cognizance.

3. The prosecution case, in brief, is that PW 1, the informant alongwith

the police force was on patrolling duty and in course of his duty he came inside the premises of Bihar State Transport Corpora­tion, Hazaribagh and he found five passengers coming from the waiting hall towards the northern gate of the said bus stand and two of them boarded a bus bear­ing Registration No. BR-2H-4848 and the informant alongwith the raiding party proceeded towards the said bus and three of them fled away from there taking ad­vantage of darkness. It is alleged that the informant interrogated the aforesaid two passengers in the bus and they disclosed themselves as Shambhu Kumar Singh and Suresh Koiri respectively and they stated that they are coming from Dhanbad and they are to go to Gaya and their person was searched and a country made pistol and three live cartridges of .315 bore were recovered from full-pant of appellant Shambhu Kumar Singh aforesaid and one country made loaded pistol under the pyjama and four live cartridges of .315 bore from the pocket of kurta (shirt) of ap­pellant Suresh Koiri were recovered. It is also alleged that appellant Shambhu Kumar Singh told on query that a briefcase has been kept in the luggage (dickki) of the bus which belongs to his companions and the said briefcase was opened and two country made pistol alongwith eleven live cartridges of .315 bore and explosive substance in two plastic packets were also recovered in the said briefcase alongwith some clothes. It is also alleged that both the appellants disclosed the names of his as­sociates as Karo Paswan, Shankar Paswan and Sibdeni Singh and the aforesaid in­criminating articles were seized as per the seizure list (Ext. 4) in presence of the witnesses.

4. Charge was framed against the ap­pellants under Sections 25(1-B) and 26 of the Arms Act and also under Section 5 of the Explosive Substance Act.

5. The appellants have pleaded not guilty to the charges levelled against them and they claim themselves to be innocent and to have committed no offence and they have been falsely implicated in this case on mere suspicion and no incriminating article has been recovered from their possession.

6. The prosecution has examined, in all four witnesses to substantiate its case. PW 1 Shambhunath Singh Vir is the in­formant of this case and he was posted as SI in the Sadar PS, Hazaribagh on the date of the occurrence. PW 2 Manoj Yadav is a witness of seizure (Ext. 4