JUDGMENT :

Jasjit Singh Bedi, J.

This order shall dispose of two criminal revision petitions i.e. CRR-2738-2009 titled as 'Jagdish Kumar @ Jaggi versus State of Punjab' and CRR-2705-2009 titled as 'Gagandeep Singh versus State of Punjab' as the same are arising out of the same FIR. However, for the sake of convenience, the facts have been taken from CRR-2738-2009.

2. The prayer in these revision petitions is for setting aside the judgment dated 06.10.2009 passed by the Additional Sessions Judge, Ludhiana whereby the appeal against the judgment of conviction and order of sentence dated 19.11.2008 passed by the Judicial Magistrate Ist Class, Ludhiana, has been dismissed.

3. The FIR in the present case came to be registered on 31.07.2001. The judgment of conviction and order of sentence was passed on 19.11.2008 by the Judicial Magistrate Ist Class, Ludhiana. The Appeal filed against the judgment of conviction and order of sentence was dismissed on 06.10.2009 by the Additional Sessions Judge, Ludhiana. The instant revision petitions were filed on 22.10.2009 and 14.10.2009 respectively and have come up for final hearing now i.e. after a period of more than 23 years from the date of registration of the FIR.

4. The case of the prosecution, in brief, is that on 31.07.2001, ASI Manjit Singh alongwith the police party was present in the area of Bridge Canal, Dugri in connection with checking. ETO R.K. Grover, Excise Inspector Ashok Kumar and Excise Chowkidar Major Singh were also joined in the police party. They were talking with each other. In the meantime ASI Manjit Singh received secret information that accused Jagdish Kumar and Gagandeep Singh were selling Indian Made Foreign Liquor make Directors Special which is for sale in Chandigarh only at a public place in Urban Estate, Phase-III, Dugri and on the bottles, 'For sale in Chandigarh' is also written. If a raid was conducted at the spot, accused Jagdish Kumar and Gagandeep Singh could be apprehended red-handed.

The information was reliable. A ruqa was sent to the police station on the basis of which the present case FIR was registered. Thereafter, a raid was conducted at the specified place at about 5.20 p.m. where two short hair men were arrested with the help of passersby who were having boxes of liquor. On inquiry, they disclosed their names as mentioned. From their possession 240 bottles of 750 ML each of Indian Made Foreign Liquor make Director Special 'For sale in Chandigarh only', was recovered. One sample nip of 180 ML from each bottle was taken out. Case property was then sealed and taken into possession vide separate recovery memo. Seal after use was handed over to HC Kuldip Singh. Sample seal was also separately prepared. Statements of witnesses were recorded. Site pan of the place of occurrence was prepared. Further investigation were started and after completion of investigations, challan against the accused was prepared and presented in the court.

5. A prima facie case U/s 61 (1) (a) of Punjab Excise Act was made out against the accused. Charge was accordingly framed against them to which they pleaded not guilty and claimed trial.

6. In order to prove its case, the prosecution examined PW1 ASI Manjit Singh Investigating Officer, PW2 E.I. Ashok Kumar, PW3 HC Kuldip Singh, PW4 HC Narinder Singh.

7. Statements of the accused U/s 313 Cr.P.C. were recorded in which all the incriminating evidence was put to them but they denied all the allegations and pleaded their innocence. However they did not lead any evidence in their defence.

8. Based on the evidence led, both the accused-petitioners, namely, jagdish Kumar @ Jaggi and Gagandeep Singh came to be convicted and sentenced by the court of the Judicial Magistrate Ist Class, Ludhiana vide judgment of conviction and order of sentence dated 19.11.2008 as under:-

9. The accused-petitioners preferred an appeal