HON’BLE SRI JUSTICE G.BHAVANI PRASAD Criminal Petition No.7833 of 2009 Dated : 23.09.2009 Between : Smt.T.Kameswari ….. Petitioner a n d The State of A.P. and others ….. Respondents HON’BLE SRI JUSTICE G.BHAVANI PRASAD Criminal Petition No.7833 of 2009 ORDER: Heard Sri Kasi Nageswara Rao, learned counsel for the petitioner, and Sri A.Ramesh, learned counsel representing the learned Public Prosecutor for all the respondents. The crime and occurrence report in 353/2009-2010 of Prohibition & Excise Station, Bhadrachalam, was registered on intercepting the auto in question, in which, 30 liters of illicitly distilled liquor was found to be carried. The petitioner is not an accused in the crime and she claims to be the owner of the auto in question, in corroboration of which, she filed a copy of the certificate of registration. She further claims that she is earning her livelihood by running the auto and has to repay the loan instalments to Indus Ind Bank Limited, Vijayawada, with the financial assistance from whom she purchased the auto. She claimed the second accused to be her driver, who was engaged by the first accused without any knowledge of the alleged offence. The petitioner also stated that the vehicle will get damaged, if kept unattended and unused till the finality of the criminal proceedings. The request of the petitioner squarely falls within the principles laid down in Sunderbhai Ambalal Desai v. State of Gujarat[1] and irrespective of the truth or otherwise of her claims of innocence, interim custody of the vehicle has to be entrusted to her subject to appropriate conditions to avoid the auto from becoming junk by being kept unattended and unused in the premises of Prohibition & Excise Station. Therefore, the auto bearing No.AP-20-Y-3852 seized in C.O.R.No.353/2009-2010 on the file of the Prohibition & Excise Station, Bhadrachalam, Khammam District, shall be entrusted to the interim custody of the petitioner on her execution of a personal bond for Rs.50,000/- with one surety for a like sum to the satisfaction of the Judicial First Class Magistrate, Bhadrachalam, and on the petitioner further undertaking to maintain the auto in the same physical state without any change in its physical features and not to alienate the same and to produce the same whenever directed by the Court. The criminal petition is ordered accordingly. ______________________ G.BHAVANI PRASAD, J 23rd September, 2009 SUR [1] 2002 (10) SCC 283