IMPORTANT POINT
The prosecution must prove its case beyond a reasonable doubt, and inconsistencies in police testimonies, coupled with lack of independent witness support, entitle the accused to acquittal.

JUDGMENT :

Rakesh Kainthla, J.

The present appeal is directed against the judgement of conviction and order of sentence dated 17^th January 2011 passed by learned Sessions Judge, Shimla (learned Trial Court) vide which the appellant (accused before the learned Trial court) was convicted of the commission of an offence punishable under Section 20 of the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act (NDPS Act) and was sentenced to undergo rigourous improvement for one year, pay a fine of Rs.5,000 and in default of payment of fine to undergo further simple imprisonment forthree months for the commission of the aforesaid offence. (The parties shall hereinafter be referred to in the same manner as they were arrayed before the learned Trial Court for convenience.)

2. Briefly stated, the facts giving rise to the present appeal are that the Police presented a charge sheet against the accused for the commission of an offence punishable under Section 20 of the NDPS Act. It was asserted that ASI Shiv Kumar (PW 15) received a secret information on 6^th March 2009 at about 4:30 PM that a person residing in Raghav Cottage, Sanjauli was dealing in Charas and in case of search of his house, a huge quantity of charas could be recovered. ASI Shiv Kumar entered an entry number 11 (Ex. PW-10/A), and sent it to Addl. Superintendent of Police Shri Anand Kumar Dhiman through Constable Nikku Ram (PW2). ASI Shiv Kumar, HC Ramlal (PW1), HHC Ramesh Chand (PW3), Constable Suresh Kumar (PW14), and Lady Constable Saraswati proceeded towards Raghav Cottage. They met Narayan Singh Baghania (PW4), Anuj Kuthiala (PW5), and Chaman Sharma near the children's Park at Sanjauli. The police associated them, and all of them went to Raghav Cottage. ASI Shiv Kumar prepared an intimation regarding the reasons for not obtaining the search warrants for the house of the accused and sent it to the Additional Superintendent of Police, Shimla, through HHC Ramesh Chand (PW3). The police found the accused present in his house. He identified himself as Bali Ram. The Police disclosed the information received by them to the accused. ASI Shiv Kumar expressed his intention to search the house of the accused. He gave his personal search and the search of the accompanying persons to the accused. Nothing incriminating was found in their possession. A memo (Ex. PW4/B) was prepared, which was signed by Chaman Sharma, Anuj Kuthiala, Narayan Singh Baghania and the accused. ASI Shivkumar, Chaman Sharma, Anuj Kuthiala and Narayan Singh went inside the house of the accused. ASI Shiv Kumar searched the house and found a polythene packet containing Charas in the form of sticks underneath the pillow on the double bed of the accused. He prepared a memo of identification (Ex. PW4/C). He weighed the Charas and found its weight to be 370 grams. He separated two samples of 20 grams, each, put the samples in two different cloth parcels, and sealed them with four impressions of seal M each. He put the remaining Charas in a separate cloth parcel, and sealed the parcel with six seal impressions of seal M. ASI Shiv Kumar obtained sample seal M on a separate piece of cloth (Ex.P3). He filled the NCB-1 form (Ex. PW-7/D) in triplicate and put the seal impression on the form. ASI Shiv Kumar handed over the seal to witness Narayan Singh after the use and prepared a memo (Ex. PW4/D) regarding handing over the seal. He seized the Charas vide seizure memo (Ex. PW4/A). He prepared a rukka (Ex. PW7/A) and sent it to the police station, where an FIR (Ex.PW-7/B) was registered. ASI Shiv Kumar conducted the investigation. He prepared the spot map (Ex. PW4/F) and recorded the statements of witnesses as per their version. He arrested the accused and prepared a memo of arrest (Ex.PW-4/E). He produced the accused and the case property before Chaman Lal Bhatia (PW7), who resealed the parcels with seal T. He obtained the specimen seal impression on a separate piece of cloth (Ex. P4) and handed over the case property, sample sea