Panchkula: Man acquitted in excise case over ‘flawed sampling’, Himachal HC case cited

A local court presided over by chief judicial magistrate (CJM) Ajay Kumar acquitted a man charged with selling illicit liquor under the Excise Act, citing a crucial observation made by the Himachal Pradesh high court in a criminal appeal case decided in 2010.

The Sector 5 police had booked Kunal Singh from Kharag Mangoli, Panchkula, on August 3, 2021, under Section 61 of The Punjab Excise (Haryana Amendment) Act. The prosecution alleged that during patrolling, police had received a tip-off about Singh selling illicit liquor near Cove Hotel. A raid led to the recovery of a plastic sack containing 18 bottles of illicit liquor. Only one bottle was taken as a sample for examination.

The Himachal court had ruled that when a sample is taken from only one bottle out of multiple cartons of liquor, the chemical examiner’s report on that single bottle is insufficient to conclude that the remaining bottles also contain liquor.

The CJM court highlighted the flawed sampling method. Instead of taking portions from each of the 18 bottles, only one was randomly selected for chemical analysis. The magistrate stated that even if the chemical report confirmed that the sampled bottle contained illicit liquor, it could not be held conclusive for all 18 recovered bottles.

The court, in its judgment, pointed out inconsistencies in the police procedure. It noted that the recovery memo inexplicably contained the FIR number, even though the FIR was registered after the memo’s preparation. This discrepancy raised doubts about the integrity of the recovery process, suggesting that the FIR might have been ante-timed or the memo altered later.

The court also criticised the prosecution for failing to include any passers-by as witnesses to the recovery, despite their availability at the scene. Consequently, the court concluded that the prosecution had failed to convincingly prove its case against the accused, leading to his acquittal.