HON’BLE SRI JUSTICE G.BHAVANI PRASAD Criminal Petition No.6161 of 2009 Dated : 11.08.2009 Between : D.Devi ….. Petitioner a n d The State of A.P. and 2 others ….. Respondents HON’BLE SRI JUSTICE G.BHAVANI PRASAD Criminal Petition No.6161 of 2009 ORDER: Heard Sri Nageswar Rao Palle, learned counsel for the petitioner, and Sri A.Ramesh, learned counsel, who entered appearance on behalf of the learned Public Prosecutor, for all the three respondents. The crime and occurrence report in P.R.No.321 of 2009-10 of Prohibition and Excise Station, Kothagudem, Khammam District, was registered on the interception of the auto in question and finding illicitly distilled liquor in 30 polythene packets of one liter each being transported in the said auto by the accused/driver. The petitioner claiming to be the owner of the vehicle by filing a copy of the registration certificate in her name claims that she availed finance from Shriram Transport Finance Company Limited, Kothagudem, for purchasing the auto and when her father was plying the auto, some passengers engaged it on 29.06.2009 and they escaped on seeing the Excise Officials leaving the illicitly distilled liquor in the auto itself. She further claims that she is eking out her livelihood from out of the income of the auto and also has to pay the loan installments to the financier. She further claimed that if the auto is exposed to atmospheric calamities, it would be damaged in course of time and hence requested for its release. The Apex Court in Sunderbhai Ambalal Desai v. State of Gujarat[1] has laid down that in case of seizure of vehicles, instead of allowing them to become junk by lying in the premises of the police stations, appropriate orders regarding their interim custody under Section 451 of the Code of Criminal Procedure should be passed before six months. Keeping the said guidelines laid down by the Apex Court in view and the ownership of the vehicle with the petitioner, it will be in the interests of justice to entrust the interim custody of the vehicle to the petitioner subject to appropriate conditions and of course, subject to final result of the criminal proceedings. Therefore, the auto bearing No.AP20 Y 6443 seized in PR No.321/2009-2010 of Prohibition & Excise Station, Kothagudem, shall be entrusted to the interim custody of the petitioner on her execution of a personal bond for Rs.75,000/- 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 maintain the vehicle in the same physical state without any alteration in its physical features and also undertaking not to alienate the same till the finality of the criminal proceedings and to produce the same before the Court whenever directed. The criminal petition is ordered accordingly. ______________________ G.BHAVANI PRASAD, J 11th August, 2009 SUR [1] (2002) 10 SCC 283