Chapter VIII DETECTION, INVESTIGATION AND TRIAL OF OFFENCES

(1) Whenever any intoxicant is manufactured or collected, or any hemp plant is cultivated, in or on any land or building, in contravention of this Act -

(a) all owners and occupiers of such land or building or their agent, and

(b) (i) Village Karnams or the peons working under them,

(ii) all officers (other than Excise Officers), employed in the collection of revenue or rent of land on behalf of the Government, or a local authority in the locality in which such land or building is situated, shall, in the absence of reasonable excuse, be bound to give notice of the fact to a magistrate or to an officer of the Excise or Police or Revenue Department as soon as the fact comes to their knowledge.

(2) Every Excise Officer shall be bound to give immediate information either to his immediate official superior or to an Excise Inspector, of all breaches of any of the provisions of this Act, which may come to his knowledge under sub-section (1) or otherwise.

(3) All such officers, or servants as are referred to in sub-section (1) shall be bound ---

(a) to take all reasonable measures in their power to prevent the commission of such breaches which they may know, or have reason to believe are about or likely to be committed; and

(b) to assist the Excise Commissioner in carrying out the provisions of this Act.

The Excise Commissioner or a Deputy Commissioner or any other Excise Officer not below such rank as may be prescribed, or any Police Officer duly empowered in that behalf, may ---

(a) enter and inspect, at any time, by day or by night, any place in which any licensed manufacturer, manufacturers or stores any intoxicant, and

(b) enter and inspect at any time within the hours during which sale is permitted, and at any other time during which the same may be open, any place in which any intoxicant is kept for sale by any person holding a licence under this Act; and

(c) examine the accounts and registers, and examine, test, measure or weigh any materials, stills, utensils, implements, apparatus, or intoxicant found in such place.

(1) Any officer of the Government employed in the Excise, Police or Revenue Department of the Union territory, subject to such restrictions as may be prescribed, and any other person duly empowered, may --

(a) arrest without warrant any person found committing an offence punishable under section 31, section 32, section 33 section 35 or section 36;

(b) seize and detain any excisable or other article which he has reason to believe to be liable to confiscation under this Act, or any other law for the time being in force, relating to excise revenue; and

(c) detain and search any person upon whom, and any vessel, raft, vehicle, animal, package, receptacle or covering in or upon which, he may have reasonable cause to suspect any such article to be.

(2) When any person is accused or is reasonably suspected of committing an offence under this Act, other than an offence under section 31, section 32, section 33, section 35 or section 36 and on demand of any such officer as aforesaid, refuses to give his name and residence or gives a name and residence which such officer has reason to believe is false, he may be arrested by such officer, in order that his name and residence may be ascertained.

If a magistrate, upon information and after such enquiry (if any) as he thinks necessary, has reason to believe that an offence under section 31, section 32, section 33, section 35 or section 36 has been, is being, or is likely to be, committed, he may issue a warrant ---

(a) for the search of any place in which he has reason to believe that any intoxicant, still, utensil, implement, apparatus or materials which are used for the commission of such offence or in respect of which such offence has been is being, or is likely to be, committed, are kept or concealed, and

(b) for the arrest of any person whom he has reason to believe to have been, to be, or to be likely to be, engaged in the commission of any such offence.

Whenever the Excise Commissioner or a Deputy Commissioner or any police officer not below the rank of an officer in-charge of a police station duly empowered in that behalf or any Excise Officer not below the rank of Excise Sub-Inspector, has reason to believe that an offence under section 31, section 32, section 33, section 35, or section 36 has been, is being, or is likely to be, committed, and that a search warrant cannot be obtained without affording the offender an opportunity of escape or of concealing evidence of the offence, he may, after recording the grounds of his belief --- (a) at any time by day or by night enter and search any place and seize anything found therein which he has reason to believe to be liable to confiscation under this Act; and (b) detain and search, if he thinks proper, arrest any person found in such place whom he has reason to believe to be guilty of such offence as aforesaid.

(1) Any Excise Inspector or any Excise Officer not below such rank and within such specified area as the Government may, by notification, prescribe, may, as regards offences under section 31, section 32, section 33, section 35 or section 36, exercise powers conferred on an officer in charge of a police station by the provisions of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1898 (Central Act 5 of 1898):

Provided that any such power shall be subject to such restrictions and modifications, if any, as the Government may prescribe.

(2) For the purposes of section 156 of the said Code, the area in regard to which an Excise Inspector is empowered under sub-section (1), shall be deemed to be a police station and such officer shall be deemed to be the officer in charge of such station.

If, on any investigation by an Excise Inspector or an Excise Officer empowered under sub-section (1) of section 54, it appears that there is sufficient evidence to justify the prosecution of the accused, the Investigating Officer, shall submit a report which shall, for the purposes of section 190 of the Code of Criminal Procedure 1898 (Central Act 5 of 1898), be deemed to be a police report, to a Magistrate having jurisdiction to inquire into or try the case and empowered to take cognizance of offences on police reports.

Where any Excise Officer below the rank of an Excise Inspector makes any arrest, seizure or search under this Act, he shall, within twenty four hours thereafter --- (a) make a full report of all the particulars of the arrest, seizure search to his immediate official superior, and (b) unless bail be accepted under section 58, take or send the person arrested or the thing seized, with all convenient despatch, to a Magistrate for trail or adjudication.

Any person arrested under this Act shall be informed, as soon as may be, of the grounds for such arrest and save as in this Act otherwise expressly provided, the provisions of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1898 (Central Act 5 of 1898) relating to arrests, detention in custody, searches, summonses, warrants of arrests, search warrants, the production of persons arrested and the disposal of things seized, shall apply, as far as may be, to all action taken in these respects under this Act.

(1) The Government may, by notification, empower any Excise Officer to release on bail, persons arrested under this Act, otherwise than on a warrant. (2) When a person is arrested under this Act, otherwise than on a warrant, by a person or officer who is not authorised to release arrested persons on bail, he shall be produced before or forwarded to, --- (a) the nearest Excise Officer who has authority to release arrested persons on bail, or (b) the nearest officer in charge of the police station, whoever is nearer. (3) Whenever any person arrested under this Act, otherwise than on a warrant, is prepared to give bail, and is arrested by or produced in accordance with sub-section (2) before an officer who has authority to release arrested persons on bail, he shall be released on bail or at the discretion of the officer releasing him, on his own bond. (4) The provisions of sections 490 to 502, section 513, section 514 and section 515 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1898 (Central Act 5 of 1898), shall apply, so far as may be, in every case, in which bail is accepted or, bond taken under this section.

No Magistrate shall take cognizance of an offence punishable --- (a) under section 34 or section 37 except on the complaint or report of the Deputy Commissioner or of an Excise Officer authorised by the Government in this behalf, or (b) under any other section of this Act other than section 45 of section 47, except on his own knowledge or suspicion or on the complaint or report of an excise officer or a police officer duly authorised in that behalf.