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IN THE HIGH COURT OF PUNJAB & HARYANA AT CHANDIGARH CRR-2123-2009 Date of Decision:-28.01.2025 VED PARKASH & ANOTHER ......Petitioners VERSUS STATE OF PUNJAB ......Respondent CORAM:- HON’BLE MR. JUSTICE JASJIT SINGH BEDI Present:- Mr. P.S. Dhaliwal, Advocate for the petitioners.

Mr. Harkanwar Jeet Singh, Asstt. A.G., Punjab.

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JASJIT SINGH BEDI, J.

The present revision petition has been filed impugning the judgment dated 07.08.2009 passed by the Addl. Sessions Judge, Barnala whereby the appeal filed against the judgment of conviction and order of sentence dated 22.01.2008 passed by the Judicial Magistrate, 1^st Class, Barnala has been dismissed.

2. The FIR in the present case came to be registered on 03.06.2004. The judgment of conviction was passed on 22.01.2008 by the Judicial Magistrate, 1st Class, Barnala. The appeal filed against the order of conviction was dismissed on 07.08.2009 by the Sessions Judge, Barnala. The instant revision petition was filed on 13.08.2009 and has come up for final hearing now i.e. after a period of 20 ½ years from the date of registration of the FIR.

3. Briefly, the story put forth by the prosecution was that on 30.03.2003, ASI Jaswant Singh, ASI Gurcharan Singh along with other police officials, while in private canter, in connection with patrolling duty and checking of bad elements, were present at the old Bus Stand Bhaini Jassa, where ASI Jaswant Singh had received secret information at about 01.30 PM about Ved Parkash @ Kaka son of Bihari Lal, Paramjit Singh son of Maghar Singh and Nahar Singh son of Bogha Singh, all residents of Bhaini Jassa to be in the habit of selling illicit liquor, without any permit or license and on that day, the said persons were coming on a tractor trolley, which was loaded with illicit liquor and they could be apprehended. Finding the said information to be reliable, a ruqa was dispatched to the Police Station and the case was registered. Thereafter, the police party proceeded to the disclosed spot. On the way, Babu Singh Panch was associated in the police party as independent witness. When the police party was present on the road connecting Bhaini Jassa with Kahneke, there they came across an Eicher Tractor Trolley, upon which, three persons were sitting. One person was driving the tractor and other two persons were sitting in the trolley. On enquiry, said persons disclosed their names Nahar Singh, Paramjit Singh and Ved Parkash and also disclosed their other particulars. ASI Jaswant Singh conducted the search of the tractor trolley and the same led to the recovery of 11 cartons containing country made liquor made Patiala Santra. Each carton contained 12 sealed bottles. The cartons were assigned Sr. Nos.1 to 11. Then ASI Jaswant Singh had broken the seals of all the 12 bottles of each carton and poured the same into the bucket. Then, one bottle was separated as sample and the residue liquor was poured in the same bottles. Likewise, one bottle was taken as sample from each carton and the residue was put in the same bottles. The samples and the residue licit liquor in the bottles were sealed with the seal bearing impressions "JS" Sample seal was separately prepared. All the samples and the cartons containing residue liquor in the bottles were taken into possession along with the Eicher tractor trolley, vide separate recovery memo. Various other proceedings were conducted at the spot. Samples were sent to the office of Chemical Examiner and the latter, vide its report, opined the same to be country made liquor. On completion of investigation, the accused were sent up to face trial for the commission of offence under Section 61(11)(a) of Punjab Excise Act.

4. On presentation of the challan, copies of the documents as envisaged under Section 207 Cr.P.C. were supplied to the accused. On the basis of the report under Section 173 Cr.P.C. and the documents annexed thereto, a prima facie case was made out against all the accused under Section 61(1)(a) of the Punjab Excise