In Brief
The appellants were charged under the Indian Forest Act for transporting 22 logs of Khair wood without authorization. The trial court acquitted them; the High Court, finding the seizure memo signed by the witness and a wood sample produced, reversed the acquittal and convicted them. The Supreme Court allowed the appeal, holding that mere production of a seizure memo and a single wood sample, without producing the actual seized logs or proving the sample belonged to them, cannot sustain a conviction. Primary evidence—the seized goods themselves—is essential; its absence renders the prosecution case fragile and unsustainable.
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