JUDGEMENT
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(1.)THE applicant was convicted for the offences under section 143 of the Railways Act, 1981 and was imposed sentence to be in imprisonment till rising of the court and to pay fine of Rs. 5000.00 and in default of payment of fine, to undergo further simple imprisonment for 15 days, as per the judgment and order dated 5th January, 2009 passed by learned Judicial Magistrate First Class (Railways) Rajkot, in criminal case No. 6101 of 2006. The said judgment and order came to be confirmed by learned 10th Additional Sessions judge Rajkot as per his judgment and order dated 5th November, 2012 in Criminal Appeal No. 05 of 2009. Aggrieved by that, the appellant-original accused has filed the present Revision Application under section 397 of the Code of Criminal Procedure 1973 (hereinafter referred to as the Code).
(2.)THE facts in the background giving rise to the present Revision may be summarised as follows. As per the case in the complaint filed against the applicant-accused, on 13.10.2006 Inspector of Crime being of Railway police force was keeping watch at computarised reservation hall at Rajkot Railway station. At that time, he caught one person who was coming with ticket in his hands. On the inquiries being made, he revealed that the tickets which he was carrying was not in his name and / or for his own reservation. He disclosed his name as Asmi Nazir Sama and stated that he was working in one Janki Enterprise. He confessed that he did not have an identity card. He further confessed that he was buying and selling railway tickets on commission. The tickets which was found to be in his possession were purchased by him for selling the same on commission.
Thereafter, the statements of the witnesses were recorded and complaint came to be filed against the applicant under section 143 of the Railways Act. The charge was framed at Exh. 18, plea was recorded at exh. 19 and as the accused did not admit the charge trial proceeded. The prosecution examined 10 witnesses and adduced documentary evidence. The trial resulted into conviction and sentence as above which was confirmed by the learned Sessions Court.
(3.)LEARNED advocate for the applicant submitted that the conviction was recorded only on the basis of the statement of the applicant-accused which was not admissible in evidence. It was submitted that the applicant had gone to buy ticket for his friend and not on behalf of the Janki Enterprise. It was submitted that the applicant had stated some thing in his further statement under section 313 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973. He submitted that there was no evidence to indicate that the applicant was in the business of buying and selling the railway tickets on commission basis.
4.1 On the other hand, it was submitted by the other side that on the date of incident the applicant was neither servant of railway nor an agent authorized for selling the tickets. He was caught red handed when he was in possession of the ticket bought by him which was going to be sold on commission basis, which was offence under section 143 of the Act. Section 143 of the Act, reads as under : Section 143. Penalty for unauthorized carrying on of business of procuring and supplying of railway tickets. (1) If any person, not being a railway servant or an agent authorized in this behalf, - (a) carries on the business of procuring and supplying tickets for travel on a railway or for reserved accommodation for journey in a trains; or (b) purchases or sells or attempts to purchase or sell tickets with a view to carrying on any such business either by himself or by any other person, he shall be punishable with imprisonment for a term which may extend to three years or with fine which may extend to ten thousand rupees, which he so procures, sells or attempts to purchase or sell : Provided that in the absence of special and adequate reasons to the contrary to be mentioned in the judgment of the court, such punishment shall not be less than imprisonment for a term of one month or a fine of five thousand rupees. (2) Whoever abets any offence punishable under this section shall, whether or not such offence is committed, be punishable with the same punishment as is provided for the offence.
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