TMI Blog1970 (1) TMI 29X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... f papers on which the amount of gold was written were in his handwriting but he said that he had written them to find out the price of gold which presumably Chandchankar had for sale. All this clearly demonstrates that it must have been accused Chokshi who was responsible for throwing the bags. By throwing the bags he cannot get rid of the possession of gold which under the law makes him responsible under the Gold Control Act and the Customs Act. The High Court and the Presidency Magistrate righlty believed the prosecution case and have deduced on circumstantial evidence that it must have been Chokshi who threw the bags from the window of his lavatory at the back of the flat since it was directly above the place where the bags had fallen ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... as, who were to have met him there at the appointed time (12.30 p.m.), had not arrived. The door of the flat opened and two persons by name Chandchankar and Ashok (son of the accused) came out. Rane asked them to go back and stay inside within his sight in the drawing room. Rane stood at the door and did not enter the flat. Chokshi then came to the door. Rane told him that a search of the flat was to be taken. Rane was invited to go in but he declined as the Panchas had not arrived. At 12.45 p.m. the Panchas arrived. Rane showed his authority to search the flat and then they entered. The raiding party was conducting the search of the flat and of the persons inside the flat, which, as already shown, were Chokshi, Chanchankar and Ashok (son o ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ent and saw the two bags and the pigeon lying in the pit. Photographs of bags were found to contain gold slabs, some of which had fallen out. Meanwhile Mody came and informed Wagh that in the balcony of his flat which adjoins the balcony of Chokshi's flat a cloth bag was lying which did not belong to him. This cloth bag was opened by Wagh and was found to contain a plastic bag inside. In the plastic bag bundles of currency notes wrapped in the newspaper of the value of Rs. 1,04,000/- were found. The bag also contained an exercise book some pages of which were found to be torn and a diary in which something was written in code language. The bag was also attached and brought to the flat. When the bags in which the gold pieces were found at th ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... have deduced on circumstantial evidence that it must have been Chokshi who threw the bags from the window of his lavatory at the back of the flat since it was directly above the place where the bags had fallen and in the course of falling has killed a pigeon nesting there. They disbelieved the version of Chokshi that it was Chandchankar who could have thrown the gold. The reasons given by the High Court in support of accepting the prosecution version are very convincing and, in fact, they leave no room for doubt whatever. 6.To begin with Chandchankar, if he had thrown the bags, could not have got the newspapers from the flat to wrap the gold pieces including a piece of newspaper torn out of a newspaper that was later found in the flat. Th ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... not the accused or any member of his family. Because of this statement it was argued that it might have been Chandchankar who had thrown the bags. However, the entire circumstantial evidence is against Chandchankar having done so : the writing on the slips of papers, which the accused admits was his own; the fact that Rane kept Chandchankar within his sight till the Panchas arrived and further that Chandchankar would not know that throwing anything out of the back lavatory window would drop it in the pit at the back of the flat. All this clearly demonstrates that it must have been accused Chokshi who was responsible for throwing the bags. By throwing the bags he cannot get rid of the possession of gold which under the law makes him responsi ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
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