HON’BLE SRI JUSTICE G.BHAVANI PRASAD CRIMINAL PETITION No.6220 of 2009 DATED:12.08.2009 Between: Munneti Ramu .. Petitioner And The State of A.P., rep., by Public Prosecutor, High Court of A.P., Hyderabad and others .. Respondents HON’BLE SRI JUSTICE G.BHAVANI PRASAD CRIMINAL PETITION No.6220 of 2009 ORDER: Heard Sri P.Nageswar Rao, learned counsel for the petitioner, and Sri A.Ramesh, learned counsel, who entered appearance for all the three respondents on behalf of the learned Public Prosecutor. The crime and occurrence report in P.R.No.376 of 2009-10 was registered on the interception of the subject auto on 12.07.2009 in which accused Nos.1 to 4 were stated to be carrying Illicitly Distilled liquor. The present petitioner’s driver was impleaded as the fifth accused. Obviously, he was driving the auto at that time; the auto was also seized at the time of the registration of the crime. The petitioner now claims that he is the registered owner of the auto, in proof of which he filed a copy of the registration certificate and he claimed to have purchased the same by availing finance from Indus Ind Bank Limited, Vijayawada. He claims innocence of the offence or any connection with accused Nos.1 to 4 who were merely passengers in his auto and stated that the income from the auto is the only source of his livelihood and for repayment of the loan instalments. The vehicle will get damaged, if it is left in the premises of the Prohibition and Excise Station and hence, he seeks release of the custody of the auto in his favour. The Apex Court has laid down the guidelines concerning the interim custody of the vehicles seized in crimes in Sundarbhai Ambalal Desai v. State of Gujarat[1] and accordingly, the interim custody of the vehicle should be entrusted to the petitioner under the circumstances subject to appropriate conditions. Therefore, auto bearing No.AP-20Y-6657 seized in P.R.No.376 of 2009-10 of Prohibition and Excise Station, Kothagudem, Khammam District shall be entrusted to the interim custody of the petitioner on his execution of a personal bond for Rs.40,000/- (Rupees forty thousand only) with one surety for a likesum to the satisfaction of the Judicial Magistrate of First Class, Kothagudem and further subject to the petitioner undertaking to produce the vehicle before the Prohibition and Excise people or the Court whenever directed and his further undertaking to maintain the vehicle in the same physical state without change of any physical features and without any alienation till the finality of the criminal proceedings. The Criminal Petition is ordered accordingly. _____________________ G. BHAVANI PRASAD, J 12th August 2009 KH [1] (2002) 10 SCC 283