Indrajit Chatterjee, J.

I am hearing this appeal as against the judgment and order of conviction dated 22-08-2012 and 24-08-2012 respectively as passed by the then learned Additional Sessions Judge, 3rd Fast Track Court, Malda, in Sessions Trial No. 05 of 2012 arising out of Sessions Case No. 12 of 2012 wherein the learned Trial Court was pleased to convict both the appellants in respect of the charge punishable under Section 489C of the Indian Penal Code (hereinafter called as the said Code) and sentenced them to suffer Rigorous Imprisonment for seven years and fine of Rs.50,000/- each and in default of payment of fine, both were sentenced to suffer further Rigorous Imprisonment for a period of one year. The appellants were however acquitted in respect of the charge punishable under Section 489B of the Code.

The prosecution case, as unfold at the time of the trial, can be stated in brief thus, that the case was initiated at the instance of the de facto complainant, A.S.I, Ranjit Das of English Bazar Police Station of District - Malda, on 29-08-2011 giving rise to English Bazar P.S. Case No. 547 of 2011 under Sections 489B and 489C of the Code.

As per F.I.R. two accused persons, who faced the trial, were produced before the said Police Station by the said A.S.I. with 200 pieces of suspected Fake Indian Currency Notes (hereinafter called as FICNs) all of Rs.1000/- denomination. It is also there in the F.I.R that the accused persons were arrested on 29-08-2011 at 19-35 hours in course of special mobile duty within English Bazar Police Station near one ‘nursery’. The de facto complainant received a source information and then he diarized as English Bazar G.D Entry No.1977 dated 29.08.2011, that two persons of Jadupur area were coming to Sadullapur within the said Police Station and they were carrying huge amount of FICNs to hand over those notes to their agent and, as such, the de facto complainant, being accompanied by other policemen like, Constable No. 672, Asit Saha, Constable No. 441, Chitu Singh, Constable No. 610, Jakir Hossain, Constable No. 232, Ujjal Singha, NVF/80069 Mithun Rabidas, HG/396 Subhankar Dey and HG/787 Anup Ghosh, rushed to the spot, that is, behind Sadullapur nursery within that P.S. (at a distance of six and half k.m.) being accompanied by the source.

The police party ambushed themselves and meanwhile contacted the local people, namely, Pulak Sarkar and Rati Ghosh, and they were apprised regarding the purposes of the police party and at about 20-45 hours they came and noticed that two persons were moving behind that area and started loitering in a perplexed manner. Then the police party jumped upon them and disclosed their identity. Offer was made to the apprehended accused persons to search the body of the policemen but they denied. On search, the de facto complainant recovered two bundles of suspected FICNs all of Rs.1000/- denomination in total amounting to Rs.2 lakh (one lakh each) from the accused persons. One seizure list was prepared at the spot at about 20-45 hours. The seizure list is divided in two parts to prove the seizure respectively from accused no.1 and accused no.2, namely, Rajim Sk and Nazrul Sk. The bundle showed with the captioned ‘A’ denoted the seizure of notes from the accused/appellant no.1. All those notes were of two series, namely, 6CA and 2BK. In all 100 notes were seized of denomination of Rs.1000/- from the appellant, Rajim Sk.

The bundle ‘B’ of the seizure list denotes seizure of 100 notes of denomination of Rs.1000/- each amounting to Rs.1 lakh. This bundle covers the notes with the series 6CA of different numbers.

Apart from such seizure of alleged FICNs two pieces of Indian Currency Notes of denomination of Rs.100/- each were also seized from accused, Nazrul Sk.

The accused persons were arrested and taken to Police Station along with the Alamat. As per F.I.R. filed by the de facto complainant, English Bazar P.S. Case No.547 of 2011 dated 29.08.2011, was started a