The main legal point established in the judgment is the requirement for proper evaluation and appreciation of evidence, voluntary disclosure statements, and the possession of illegal arms and ammunitions without a license under the Arms Act, 1959.

JUDGMENT :

1. In this revisional application petitioners in custody have assailed the judgment and order dated 29.11.2018 passed by the learned Additional District & Sessions Judge, FTC-II, Alipore, South 24 Parganas dismissing the Criminal Appeal No. 173 of 2018, thereby affirming the judgment dated 20.7.2018 and order dated 31.7.2018 passed by the Court of learned Chief Judicial Magistrate, Alipore whereby the appellants were convicted and sentenced to undergo rigorous imprisonment for three years each and to pay a fine of Rs. 5000/- each for having committed an offence under Section 25 (1B) of Arms Act, 1959 in connection with CGR No. 3050 of 2017; TR 277 of 2017 arising out of West Port Police Station Case No. 201 of 2017, dated 24.7.2017, under Sections 25 (1B) (a)/ 29 of Arms Act, inter alia, on the grounds that the petitioners have been falsely implicated in the present case and the witnesses pertaining to search and seizure of the alleged arms are the pocket witnesses of the prosecution and petitioners have been introduced in the case as accused persons and that the learned Magistrate without appreciating the evidence on record convicted and sentenced the petitioners without application of judicial mind.

2. Now, the point for consideration in this appeal is as to whether the learned Courts below have erred in passing the judgment and order of conviction and sentence upon the petitioners without proper evaluation and appreciation of the evidence on record.

3. At the outset, the learned counsel for the petitioners submitted that the Appellate Court has not appreciated the fact that the prosecution have implicated the petitioners in the alleged crime inasmuch as no seizure was made within the State of West Bengal and no local witness could identify the petitioners before the Court. It is further argued that no agreement of tenancy or any other documents have been produced to support the presence of the petitioners at the alleged place of recovery.

4. Brief facts leading to the instant appeal is that acting on a tip of S.I. Vinod Kumar of West Port Police Station had been to Dhobiatalab Container Parking/Yard on the western bank of a huge water body, known as Dhobiatalab on 24.7.2017 at about 12.15 hours. After a prolonged watch at about 15.05 hours, he noticed that four persons riding on two motor cycles came near to the said spot. On being pointed out by the source, he chased them and they tried to flee on their motor cycles and tried to speed away. He could manage to catch one motor cyclist and its pillion rider and detained them while the other two managed to escape.

5. A few members of public gathered out of whom two, namely, Sk. Chand and Mohammad Farmuddin volunteered to become witnesses to the search of the detainee who disclosed their identities as Afroz Alam and Mohammad Imtiyaj.

6. On search, one improvised semi-automatic pistol fitted with a magazine loaded with five rounds of live ammunitions along with another magazine in empty condition was recovered from the possession of Afroz Alam.

7. Further search was made in presence of the witnesses and on search, one improvised semi-automatic pistol fitted with a magazine loaded with five rounds of live ammunitions along with another magazine in empty condition was recovered from the possession of Mohammad Imtiyaz.

8. On interrogation, Sub-Inspector Vinod Kumar found that those persons were in the racket of trade of illegal fire arms & ammunitions. He recorded the statements of those two detained persons as well as the seizure witnesses and produced those two accused persons along with seized alamats and case documents before the Officer-in-charge, West Port Police Station with a prayer to start a case under Section 25 (1B) (a)/ 29 of the Arms Act, 1959 against them and others. The case was endorsed to Sub-Inspector Avijit Kumar Bose for investigation. Those accused persons were taken into police custody and pursuant to their statements, the other four accused persons were a