The prosecution must prove its case beyond all reasonable doubt, and non-compliance with evidentiary requirements can lead to the acquittal of the accused.

JUDGMENT :

AJAY MOHAN GOEL, J.

1. By way of present revision petition, petitioner has challenged the judgment passed by the Court of learned Sessions Judge, Hamirpur in Cr. Appeal No. 27 of 2008 dated 10.9.2008 vide which, learned appellate court while dismissing the appeal filed by the present petitioner, upheld the judgment passed by the Court of learned Chief Judicial Magistrate, Hamirpur in Cr. Case No. 22-1 of 2007/40-II of 2007 dated 5.4.2008 whereby learned trial court convicted the accused for commission of offences punishable under Section 68-A of Copyright Act and Section 292 of IPC and sentenced him to undergo simple imprisonment for a period of one year and to pay a fine of Rs. 2,000/- for commission of offence punishable under Section 68- A of Copyright Act and to undergo simple imprisonment for a period of one year and to pay fine of Rs. 2,000/- for commission of offence punishable under Section 292 IPC. Both the substantive sentences of imprisonment to run concurrently.

2. The case of the prosecution was that PW6 Sub Inspector Guler Chand, HC Manohar Lal and Constables Sanjeev Kumar and Raj Kumar had gone to Nalti for the purpose of verification of entry in the Daily Diary, Ext. PW6/A, with regard to the factum of accused keeping for sale pirated and pornographic VCDs. As per prosecution, PW2 Subhash Verma and Ramesh Chand were associated by the police party as witnesses and search of the shop of accused was conducted in the course of which 19 VCDs were recovered out of which 9 were found to be MP-3 and 10 were found to be pornographic. Further as per prosecution these VCDs were sealed in a packet with seal =H'. The CDs were seized vide seizure memo Ext. PW1/A on which signatures of witnesses Sanjeev Kumar, Suhhash and Ramesh Chand were obtained. Ruqua Ext. PW6/E was prepared and sent to the Police Station, on the basis of which, FIR Ext. PW5/B was registered. Statements of witnesses were recorded as per their versions and site plan was also prepared.

3. After completion of the investigation challan was prepared and filed in the Court and as a prima facie case was found against the accused he was charged for commission of offences punishable under Section 68-A of Copyright Act and Section 292 of IPC, to which accused pleaded not guilty and claimed trial.

4. In order to prove its case prosecution, in all, examined 07 witnesses.

5. PW-1, Ramesh Chand, who as per the prosecution was associated by the police party with the search and seizure of VCDs from the accused, did not support the case of the prosecution.

6. PW2, Subhash Verma, the other independent witness who was associated by the prosecution with the search and seizure of the VCDs from the accused also did not support the case of the prosecution.

7. PW3, Sanjeev Kumar, who was part of the police party stated that on 15.11.2006 Subhash Chand Gift Centre was checked at Nalti by Sub Inspector Guler Chand and from the counter of the said shop 19 CDs were recovered. He stated that out of these CDs, 09 were pirated and 10 were pornographic which were checked at the spot. He further stated that these CDs were taken into possession vide memo Ext. PW1/A. In his cross-examination, this witness admitted it to be correct that at Nalti there were 25-30 shops. He also stated that police party did not associate any local person with the investigation. He further stated that Ramesh had joined the investigation at the spot only and that Ramesh was not taken along by the police party. He also stated that the entire proceedings at Nalti consumed about 3 to 4 hours. He admitted that before checking the counter the police party had not given its search to anyone.

8. The next relevant witness is Sub Inspector Guler Chand who entered the witness box as PW6. This witness deposed that he was posted as Sub Inspector at Police Station, Hamirpur since July, 2006. He also deposed that on 15.11.2006 at around 2:45 p.m. some unknown person passed on information that Subhash Chand a shopkeeper at