A. M. Badar, J.—By this appeal, appellant/convicted accused, Kapildeo Thakur is challenging the Judgment and order dated 15.09.2017 and 20.09.2017 passed by the learned Sessions Judge, Munger in Sessions Trial No. 228 of 2016 between the parties, thereby convicting him of the offences punishable under Sections 25(1-B)a r/w 35, 25(1-AA) r/w 35 and 26 r/w 35 of the Arms Act, 1959. For the offence punishable under Sections 25(1-B)a r/w 35 of the Arms Act, he is sentenced to suffer rigorous imprisonment of five years apart from imposition of fine of Rs.10,000/- and default sentence of simple imprisonment for three months. For the offence punishable under Sections 25(1-AA) r/w 35 of the Arms Act, the appellant is sentenced to suffer rigorous imprisonment for ten years apart from imposition of fine of Rs. 50,000/- and default sentence of simple imprisonment for six months. For the offence punishable under Sections 26 r/w 35 of the Arms Act, he is sentenced to suffer rigorous imprisonment for seven years apart from imposition of fine of Rs.10,000/- and default sentence of simple imprisonment for three months. Substantive sentences are directed to run concurrently by the learned trial court. For the sake of convenience, the appellant shall be referred to in his original capacity as “an accused”.

2. Facts leading to the prosecution of the accused projected from the police report can be summarized thus:—

A. P.W. 1, Abhinav Kumar Dubey who happens to be the Station House Officer of the Muffasil Police Station, Munger on 11.08.2015 had received a secret information that illicit trade of the weapons shall be happening at the site of under construction house of Bechan Singh son of Shivdhari Singh situated at the western side of the Middle School near an area named Gaira Pahar. He took sanha entry of the information so received and along with his staff comprising of P.W. 6 Raghubans Prasad Singh Police Inspector, P.W. 3 Mahendra Rajak Head Constable and others, proceeded to village Gaira Pahar. When the police party reached at the under construction house of Bechan Singh situated near the Middle School, two persons attempted to flee away from that spot. One person managed to escape whereas another one who was holding a plastic bag in his hand came to be apprehended by the police party. Upon being asked, the said person disclosed his name as Kapildeo Thakur, i.e., the present appellant/accused.

B. P.W. 1 Abhinav Kumar Dubey, Police Station Officer searched for independent witness in order to effect the search and seizure from the accused. However the independent witnesses were not available. As such members of the raiding team namely P.W. 3 Mahendra Rajak Head Constable and one another police personnel named Dhananjay Kumar were asked to act as Punch witnesses. Thereafter search of the plastic bag held by the accused came to be conducted. It was found to be containing one 7.65 mm pistol with its additional magazine and two country made firearms. By preparing seizure memo, those three firearms and one magazine came to be seized and on the basis of the First Information Report lodged on 11.08.2015 itself by P.W. 1 Abhinav Kumar Dubey, Crime No. 160 of 2015 came to be registered against the accused for the offences punishable under Sections 25(1-b)A, 25(1-AA), 25(a-AC) and 26 r/w Section 35 of the Arms Act.

C. During the course of investigation, the firearms as well as magazine came to be sent for opinion of the Ballistic Expert at the Police Centre, Lakhisarai and that report came to be obtained from P.W. 5 Shyam Sundar Prasad Kashap, Sergeant Major. Sanction as envisaged by Section 39 of the Arms Act came to be obtained from the District Magistrate, Munger and on completion of investigation, the accused came to be charge sheeted.

D. The learned trial court framed and explained the charges to the accused. He pleaded not guilty and claimed trial. In order to bring home the guilt to the accused, the prosecution has examined in all six witnesses. First