Chandran @ Manichan @ Maniyan vs State Of Kerala

(ii) under the Abkari Act along with convictions under Sections 324, 326, 328 and 201, IPC as also the other Sections like Section 55 (h) and (i) and 58 of the Abkari Act. In short, most of the accused persons were directed to suffer rigorous imprisonment for life and, as the case may be, rigorous imprisonment for 10 years 4 along with fine. All these appeals were heard jointly since they were against the common judgment. As many as 48 accused persons came to be tried before the Sessions Judge. Some of them were acquitted at the stage of trial and some others at the appeal stage, leaving the above mentioned appellants in the fray who are before us.

5. On 22.10.2000, in the wee hours, Sub-Inspector of Police, Paripally received information that one Raghunatha Kurup of Kulathoorkonam and seven others were admitted in the Medical College Hospital Thiruvananthapuram for treatment on account of illness caused by consumption of illicit liquor. He reached the Hospital and recorded the first information statement of Raghunatha Kurup at 2 a.m. By that time, one Sasidharan who had consumed the illicit liquor had died and two others were lying in unconscious condition. On that basis, Sub-Inspector registered Crime No. 268 of 2000 under Section 302, 307, IPC read with Section 34, IPC and under Section 57A of the Abkari Act. Little did he know the exact ramifications or vastness of the grim tragedy which was about to take place. Three other similar crimes were registered at Kottarakkara police station and this was followed by further crimes registered in the same police station being Crime No.809 of 2000, Crime No.810 of 2000, Crime No.811 of 2000 and Crime No.817 of 2000. All these crimes were 6 consolidated with crime No.268 of 2000 of Parippally police station and the information started trickling regarding the consumption of spurious liquor by poor persons and their admittance to the hospital from within Anchal and Pooyappally police station limits. Similar incidents had taken place within the limits of Mangalapuram police station and the crime was registered there also. Investigation machinery quickly responded to the happenings and a special investigation team (SIT) was constituted as per the directions of Director General of Police, Kerala, Thiruvananthapuram on 25.10.2000 which was to be headed by Shri Sibi Mathews, IPS who was the Inspector General of Police. He was to head the team of seven persons, six other persons being the police officers of the level of Inspectors and above. All these earlier mentioned crimes were taken over for investigation by SIT. They started investigation in all the concerned police stations where the crimes were reported. It was realized that as many as 31 persons had lost their lives, six persons had suffered total blindness in Kollam District whereas more than 500 persons suffered serious injuries on account of the drinking of the illicit liquor.

6. Unfortunately, all this was going on in God's own country, Kerala which was turned into hell by the liquor mafia. Eventually, investigation by the SIT was completed and the final report was filed before the Judicial Magistrate, 1st Class, Paravoor on 21.1.2001 against 47 persons. After the charge-sheet was filed, accused No.48 was also added by a supplementary charge- sheet. However, as many as four accused persons, they being accused Nos. 34, 36, 39 and 45 died on account of consumption of their own medicine, the spurious liquor. Accused No.3 had lost his eye sight completely. Few accused were absconding, their cases were split up. Rest of the accused were sent for trial before the Sessions Judge before whom a marathon trial took place wherein 271 witnesses were examined, as many as 1105 documents were proved and relied upon and over 291 material objects were produced. The defence also examined as many as 17 witnesses and relied on 110 documents being Exhibits D-1 to D-111.

12. The prosecution also alleged that A-44 diluted the spirit by adding water and sold it on 26.10.2000 near Apollo colony to CWs 433 to 456. They consumed the same liquor and sustained grievous injuries and one of them lost his eyesight.

15. Accused Nos.13, 17, 31, 32, 37, 40, 43, 46, 27, 48 were found not guilty. They were straightaway acquitted. Some of the accused persons died during the trial. Those who were convicted by the Sessions Judge were awarded sentences depending upon the seriousness of the crime as per the classifications which have been shown above. Naturally, the persons in category (1) and category (2) were dealt with severely and most of them were awarded the maximum punishment of life imprisonment along with heavy fine. Those accused persons who were in category (3) were dealt with a little lightly in the sense that they were not given life imprisonment but 1 imprisonment ranging from 3 years to 10 years was awarded to them. The convicted accused filed appeals before the High Court. The High Court also acquitted few of the accused persons and those whose appeals were dismissed have now come before us by way of separate appeals which we have indicated in the first paragraph of this judgment. The High Court has considered the appeals filed by various accused before it separately. We also propose to do the same thing. We have to consider mainly the appeals filed by accused Nos. A-7, A-4, A-30, A-8 and Suresh Kumar (A-25) who filed SLP (Crl) 842 of 2006. Before we take up this task, we would analyze the impugned judgment of the High Court.

(i) if as a result of such omission, grievous hurt is caused to any person, with imprisonment for a term which shall not be less than two years but which may extend to imprisonment for life, and with fine which may extend to fifty thousand rupees;

(ii) if as a result of such omission, death is caused to any person, with imprisonment for a term which shall not be less than three years but which may extend to imprisonment for life, and with the fine which may extend to fifty thousand rupees;

(iii) in any other case, with imprisonment for a term which shall not be less than one year but which may extend to ten years, and with fine which may extend to twenty-five thousand rupees.

24. Accused No.7 He appears to be the boss who was running this illegal business of liquor along with his family members including accused Nos.A-4 and A-8 and even their wives were not left behind which is clear from the fact that they were arrayed as accused along with others but could not be brought to book as they were absconding and hence their cases were separated. It appears to be an admitted position that shop Nos. 1 to 26 meant for selling toddy were being managed by this accused. He had the licence for running those toddy shops in Chirayinkil Range. He had obtained them in the auction using his own money. The shops were obtained in the name of his wife who was accused No.18 and also a relative being accused No.19. This auction was held for the year 2000-01, in March, 2000. It was only at that time that he realized that he had paid Rs.4 crores which may not be possible for him to recover if he sold only toddy through these 26 outlets. The prosecution case is that, therefore, he started procuring illicit ethyl alcohol and for that purpose accused No.4 and other accused 3 being A-12, A-13, and A-48 helped him. The prosecution alleged that methyl alcohol used to be purchased by A-17 outside the state of Kerala and used to be supplied to A16 who delivered it to the godown at Pandaksala bearing door No. VI/98 of Chirayinkil Panchayat. Pandaksala was, in one sense, a factory for the production of the spurious liquor as per the prosecution case. There is no dispute that Pandaksala godown was owned and controlled completely by A-7. The prosecution alleged against him that A-7 was doing the business in liquor in the name of a firm called Ushus Traders. His wife's name is Usha and her younger sister's name is Ambili and it was alleged by the prosecution that his wife's brother Raju also helped him in his business. There was a large organization which becomes clear from the fact that his premises were raided by the Income Tax Department on 14.10.1999. PW-127, A. Mohan is the deputy Director of Income Tax who conducted the raid along with others. Sworn statements were recorded from A-7 as also the original accused No.15 on that day. Prosecution proved some documents relating to this raid vide Exhibits P- 335, 336, 337 and 338. The statement of A-7 was marked as Exhibit P-339 while that of A-15 as Exhibit P-340. Statements of others were also recorded they being Exhibits P-341, 342 and 343. From these statements and 3 from the documents, it became clear that a full-fledged business in illicit liquor was going on. Accounts were contained in Exhibit P-335 and P-336. A bunch of duplicate stickers was also found vide Exhibit P-338. They were of Kerala State Bewerage Corporation allegedly signed by the Excise Commissioner. It came in light that they used to sell arrack in 150 litre cover indicated in the accounts as letters PKT or P2 while toddy used to be mixed with spirit that was indicated as Spl. The more potent brand which was by adding spirit to toddy was named as KP. The spirit which was brought, of course, illegally was indicated as SBT. Sale of arrack in retail was indicated by MN. The accounts also indicated the packets given to the salesmen for sale, illegal gratification given to excise, police, politicians in code language. The High Court has rightly held that this could not bring to light the offence under Section 57A. However, the High Court had held that this went on to suggest that there was a huge business going on in liquor and at times by mixing toddy with ethyl alcohol.

27. The High court has further held that the toddy business was carried on in the building where firm Ushus Traders was operating. The toddy godown was just behind the Ushus office in building bearing No.CP III/580. The said godown was a licenced one for conducting toddy shop Nos.1 to 26 of Chirayinkil village. Two hidden tanks were found vide M.Os 63 and 64 and it is here that the liquor activities connected with business were going on. The High Court has held that the registered owners Chellamma and Sahadevan were not in the possession of premises. In this search, one tank of 5 thousand litres capacity, two tanks of 1 thousand capacity and one tank of 2 thousand capacity were seized. So also from these premises the vehicles with fake numbers, they being M.O. 3 Nos. 83, 84, 85 and 86 were seized from these premises. The High Court also referred to analysis of cotton swabs collected from this place which showed that there was methyl alcohol. Still another property of 19.5 cents shown as Arayathuruthu was also found being owned by Raju who was brother of A-18. This property was also used by A-7 to destroy the evidence by burning plastic cans and other items. Still another property in village Sarkara was used by A-7 for illicit business which was clear from the documents seized by PW-256, P.K. Kuttappan in the presence of PW-119, Asheraf. The High Court also made reference to other properties which were used by A-7 for the purpose of illicit business, which properties belonged to mother-in-law of A-7. The High Court rightly came to the conclusion that it was A-7 who was controlling the whole affair. It is significant that when trace evidence was collected from the vehicles seized from the areas, in some of the items methyl alcohol was detected.

52. Lastly, Shri Giri also argued about the sentence and contended that at the most this accused could be booked for the offence under section 55 (g) and (h). There can be no doubt that he can be booked for those offences, however, in our opinion, the Trial Court and the appellate Court have not committed any illegality in booking him under section 57A (1) (ii) also. 8 Considering the number of deaths caused on account of the business in which this accused was neck deep, we do not think that any leniency can be shown. We accordingly dismiss the appeal of A-8.

57. We accordingly dismiss his appeal with the modification in the sentence as indicated.

60. Again before parting, we appreciate the assistance that we have had from all the defence counsel as also from Shri A. Sharan and Shri J.C. Gupta, learned Senior Counsel, who appeared for the prosecution. We must make a special reference to the assistance that the Court got from Shri Mohan Raj, Assistant to the Special Public Prosecutor before the trial Court, who, at our request, spared his substantial time and labour for assisting this Court. We dispose of all the appeals accordingly.

April 4, 2011 1 1