HON’BLE SRI JUSTICE G.BHAVANI PRASAD Criminal Petition No.6153 of 2009 Dated : 13.08.2009 Between : M/s.Keep Safe Traders Private Limited ….. Petitioner a n d The State of A.P. ….. Respondent HON’BLE SRI JUSTICE G.BHAVANI PRASAD Criminal Petition No.6153 of 2009 ORDER: Heard Sri N.Siva Reddy, learned counsel for the petitioner, and Sri A.Ramesh, learned counsel representing the learned Public Prosecutor, for the sole respondent. Crime No.190 of 2009 of Mahankali Police Station was registered under Section 420 r/w. Section 511 of the Indian Penal Code against three persons alleging that on information, the tanker bearing No.AP 31 W 3468 was intercepted and it was found to be carrying 20 kilo liters of thinner oil. On suspicion that the said thinner oil was being transported to be delivered to some black market dealers for illegal mixing of solvents into the petrol, the accused were arrested and the lorry tanker with thinner oil was seized. The petitioner produced various documents to show that it is engaged in the manufacture of specialty oil, thinner, Organic Composite Solvent (O.C.S.) etc. under valid registrations and permissions and the petitioner claims to procure raw material from oil refineries for manufacture of its products in its factory in Rani Khinda. The petitioner further claims that in pursuance of an agreement entered into with M/s.Sainath Enterprises in April, 2009, it engaged the tanker in question from Sangeetha Transport Company on 15.07.2009, loaded 20 kilo liters of thinner solvent oil and sent the same along with the way bills, invoices and other documents, by entrusting to the driver. It was the crew of the lorry tanker that appears to have diverted in the journey to go to Tamil Nadu in the course of which they were apprehended by the Police. The petitioner, therefore, requests for release of the said stock of thinner oil to it while claiming innocence of any offences or any intention to commit any offence. The crime was, in fact, not registered against the petitioner though in the confessional statements of A.1 to A.3 they were claimed to have stated that they were getting high density petroleum products from the petitioner. Apart from any direct allegation against the petitioner about its involvement in the proposed delivery of the product to black market dealers, the claim in the petition that the product is highly inflammable, unsafe to keep in open place, has to be taken into account to avoid keeping of said product either with the police or with the Court without adequate safeguards. The petitioner also asserts that the product is not used for mixing in other petroleum products as suspected by the Police and as the documents produced by it prima facie probablize its ownership over the product, the inherent jurisdiction should be exercised to entrust the product to the petitioner by way of an interim measure in tune with the principles governing such interim custody under Section 451 of the Code of Criminal Procedure and in the light of the principles laid down in Sunderbhai Ambalal Desai v. State of Gujarat[1] subject to appropriate conditions. Therefore, the stock of 20 kilo liters of thinner oil in oil tanker bearing No.AP31 W 3468 (but not the tanker lorry itself) shall be entrusted to the interim custody of the petitioner on execution of a personal bond by the Director of the petitioner duly authorized by the petitioner to execute such a bond along with one surety to the satisfaction of the 11th Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate, Secunderabad, for a sum of Rs.5,00,000/- (Rupees Five Lakhs only) and further subject to the petitioner undertaking to deposit to the credit of the matter the value of the thinner oil released to its custody in accordance with the directions of the Court. The petition is ordered accordingly. ______________________ G.BHAVANI PRASAD, J 13th August, 2009 SUR [1] (2002) 10 SCC 283