JUDGMENT :

By way of instant criminal appeal under Section 378 of the Cr.PC., challenge has been laid to the judgment of acquittal dated 20.5.2010, passed by the learned Additional District Judge, Fast Track Court, Kullu, District Kullu, H.P., in Criminal appeal No. 6 of 2010, reversing the judgment of conviction and order of sentence dated 22.2.2010 and 23.2.2010, passed by the learned Chief Judicial Magistrate, Lahaul- Spiti at Kullu, Himachal Pradesh in Criminal Case No. 428-I of 2005/ 51-III of 2008, whereby the learned trial court below though acquitted one of the accused namely Krishan Chand, but found the respondent-accused Yub Raj, guilty of having committed offence of violating Rule 20 of the HP Forest Produce (Transit Land Routes) Rules, 1978 (in short ‘the rules’) read with Section 42 of the Indian Forest Act, 1927 (in short ‘the Act’) and accordingly, convicted and sentenced him to undergo three months rigorous imprisonment and to pay fine of Rs. 5,000/-.

2. Briefly, stated facts as emerge from the record are that on 22.4.2005, persons namely Tejaswi Ram Bharti, Arvind Kumar and Ajay Kumar informed the police that they have received secrete information regarding the trans