TMI Blog1939 (1) TMI 13X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... vidence of an offence to disappear). At the trial the Sessions Judge acquitted the appellant's wife of all the charges but convicted the appellant of murder and sentenced him to death. The appeal is based upon admission of certain evidence said to be made inadmissible by provisions of the Code of Criminal Procedure and the Evidence Act: and is further maintained upon the contention that whether the disputed evidence be admitted or not and certainly if it ought to have been rejected there is no evidence sufficient to support this conviction. 2. On Tuesday 23rd March 1937, at about noon the body of the deceased man was found in a steel trunk in a third class compartment at Puri the terminus of a branch line on the Bengal Nagpur Railway, where the trunk had been left unclaimed. The body had been cut into seven portions, and the medical evidence left no doubt that the man had been murdered. A few days elapsed before identification but eventually the body of the deceased was identified by his widow. He was a man of about 40 and had been married about 22 years. He had been a peon in the service of the Dewan of Pithapur one of whose daughters was the wife of the accused. It was sug ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ng documents only, and in the afternoon arrested the four persons already mentioned. In addition to evidence of the facts above stated the prosecution adduced the evidence of two employees in a shop at Berhampur where trunks were made and sold who gave evidence that on Monday, 22nd March, in the afternoon the dhobie or washerman of the accused called at the shop and ordered a trunk; that a trunk was taken to the accused's house and shown to him and his wife. It was rejected as being too large, and a smaller one of the size of the trunk in question was then delivered to the dhobie at the shop and he took it away. The transaction was entered in the rough day book and in the fair copy book of the shop as of the day in question: and though the trial Judge thought that the entry had been tampered with so as to insert the height of the trunk the trial Judge and the High Court both of whom inspected the entries were satisfied that they genuinely established the sale of such a trunk on that day. The witnesses identified the trunk in which the body was found as being the trunk of their manufacture which was sold in the circumstances stated on the Monday afternoon. The dhobie was called ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ent, so the accused returned to Berhampur by jetka. This statement was obviously important for it admitted that the murdered man arrived at the accused's house on the 21st. Both Courts admitted it. Their Lordships are of opinion that it should have been rejected for reasons that will be given later. The accused and the other three members of his household were arrested on the 4th, and the house remained unoccupied. 5. On the 7th a further search of the premises was made by the police, and a bundle of rags which apparently had been washed but contained bloodstains was found buried at a depth of about 18 inches in the compound. Some rags also bloodstained but still damp were found in a box in the bathroom. The trial Judge accepted this evidence: on appeal both of the Judges thought that the articles found were not on the premises when the police searched on the 4th: Manohar Lall J. thought that the discovery was made under highly suspicious circumstances and that no inference should be drawn against the accused in respect of it. In this state of the case their Lordships think that it would be unsafe to rely upon the discoveries on 7th April. Before the examining Magistrate the ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... occasion of the death will not be admissible. But statements made by the deceased that he was proceeding to the spot where he was in fact killed, or as to his reasons for so proceeding, or that he was going to meet a particular person, or that he had been invited by such person to meet him would each of them be circumstances of the transaction, and would be so whether the person was unknown, or was not the person accused. Such a statement might indeed be exculpatory of the person accused. Circumstances of the transaction is a phrase no doubt that conveys some limitations. It is not as broad as the analogous use in circumstantial evidence which includes evidence of all relevant facts. It is on the other hand narrower than resgestae. Circumstances must have some proximate relation to the actual occurrence: though, as for instance, in a case of prolonged poisoning they may be related to dates at a considerable distance from the date of the actual fatal dose. It will be observed that the circumstances are of the transaction which resulted in the death of the declarant. It is not necessary that there should be a known transaction other than that the death of t ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... had the advantage of the presence of Sir George Rankin in giving a full consideration to all the reported decisions: and they have come to the conclusion that the words of the Section lead to the conclusion that the statement is not admissible even when made by the person ultimately 'accused. 10. The reference in the Section to this 'Chapter is to the group of Sections beginning with Ch. 14 forming Part 5 of the Code entitled Information to the Police and Their Powers to Investigate. After giving powers to certain police officers to investigate certain crimes the Code proceeds in Section 160 to give power to any police officer making an investigation by an order in writing to require the attendance before himself of persons who appear to be acquainted with the circumstances of the case. By Section 161 any policeman making an investigation under the chapter may examine orally any person supposed to be acquainted with the facts and circumstances of the case, and such person shall be bound to answer all questions put to him other than those the answers to which may tend to incriminate him. Then follows the Section in question which is drawn in the same general way relat ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... Parliament is that they should be construed according to the intent of the Parliament which passed the Act. If the words of the statute are in themselves precise and unambiguous, then no more can be necessary than to expound those words in their natural and ordinary sense. The words themselves alone do in such case best declare the intention of the lawgiver. But if any doubt arises from the terms employed by the Legislature, it has always been held a safe means of collecting the intention, to call in aid the ground and cause of making the statute, and to have recourse to the preamble which according to Dyer C.J. Stowel v. Lord Zouch (1562) 1 Plowd 353 at p. 369] is a key to open the minds of the makers of the Act, and the mischiefs which they are intended to redress': Lord Halsbury L.C. in Income Tax Commissioners v. Pemsel (1891) A.C. 531 at p. 542. 11. In this case the words themselves declare the intention of the Legislature. It therefore appears inadmissible to consider the advantages or disadvantages of applying the plain meaning whether in the interests of the prosecution or the accused. It would appear that one of the difficulties that has been felt in some of ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... is necessary to give to Section 162 the full meaning indicated. It only remains to add that any difficulties to which either the prosecution or the defence may be exposed by the construction now placed on Section 162 can in nearly every case be avoided by securing that statements and confessions are recorded under Section 164. In view of their Lordships' decision that the alleged statement was inadmissible by reason of Section 162, the appellant's contention that it was inadmissible as a confession under Section 25, Evidence Act, becomes unnecessary. As the point was argued however and as there seems to have been some discussion in the Indian Courts on the matter it may be useful to state that in their Lordships' view no statement that contains self exculpatory matter can amount to a confession, if the exculpatory statement is of some fact which if true would negative the offence alleged to be confessed. Moreover, a confession must either admit in terms the offence, or at any rate substantially all the facts which constitute the offence. An admission of a gravely incriminating fact, even a conclusively incriminating fact is not of itself a confession, e. g. an adm ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... though this evidence be rejected there is other evidence of overwhelming strength to the same effect. It must be taken to have been proved that a trunk was bought by order of the accused and taken to his house on the afternoon of 22nd March. At about 6 A. M. on 23rd March, that trunk containing the body of the deceased was placed on the train at the station of Berhampur having been conveyed there in a vehicle ordered by the accused in which he and the trunk travelled to the station. The deceased had on the day before set out from his house for the express purpose of visiting the accused's house. In these circumstances there is ample evidence of the presence of the deceased at the accused's house; the fact which alone the statement sought to establish. Faced with this difficulty Mr. Pritt sought to establish that in no case whether the statement be rejected or admitted was there sufficient evidence of his client's guilt. The facts were consistent, he said, with the accused being merely an accessory after the fact to a murder to which he was no party. Their Lordships are unable to say that there was not ample evidence upon which the Judge of fact could properly convict o ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
|
