TMI Blog1995 (9) TMI 373X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... st each of the accused and sentence of life imprisonment has also been passed against each of the accused under Section 3 of TADA. For the offence under Section 4 of TADA, each of the accused has been sentenced to suffer five years rigorous imprisonment and also a fine of ₹ 1,000/-, in default, one year s rigorous imprisonment. The said special case No. 17/92 was instituted against the appellants after obtaining necessary sanction from the competent authority in respect of an incident which had taken place on 17.4.1990 at 10 P.M. The prosecution case in short is that PW 1 Kashmir Singh, his son Balkar and other members of the family were sitting in their house and the three accused together with Balwinder Singh, since deceased, cam ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... threatened him by saying that they would kill him and the members of the family. It was stated by the said Kashmir Singh that the said persons became angry with Kashmir Singh and the members of his family because of the recovery of arms and ammunition by the police on the basis of the statement made by the said Kashmir Singh on a previous occasion. He has also stated that when the accused fired shots with the rifles carried by them he was hit on his leg and in defence. Subedar and the said Kashmir Singh also fired with a SBBL gun and Guljar Singh also fired with a DBBL gun. But when Balkar Singh chased the accused by flashing his torch, he sustained bullet injury fired by the Balwinder Singh causing his death on the spot. It may be stat ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ional statements had been sent directly to the designated courts. PW 8 Superintendent of Police, who had recorded the confessional statement, has deposed that he sent the confessional statements on the very same day when the confessional statements were recorded by him to be despatched to the Designated Court. It is also not in dispute such confessional statements were promptly received by the designated court. Mr. Siddiqui has submitted that to safeguard any tampering with the confessional statements the rule provides that such confessional statements shall be sent to the Chief Judicial Magistrate or to the Chief Metropolitan Magistrate, as the case may be, and such Magistrate, in his turn will send such confessional statement to the co ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... iated the trial. Mr.Siddiqui has also contended that in the instant case, no specific question was pointedly put to the accused under Section 313 Cr. P.C. drawing the attention of the accused that they had made confessional statements, which were being relied on by the prosecution. According to him such omission on the part of the learned Designated Court has caused a serious prejudice to the appellants thereby vitiating the trial. He has submitted that as a matter of fact the court has relied on the said confessional statements for convicting the appellants. In our view, the contention of Mr. Siddiqui cannot be accepted. It appears that while examining the accused under Section 313 Cr.P.C. the entire gist of the confessional statemen ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... criminal case out rules of prudence dictate that deposition of such witness should be weighed with care and caution before accepting such deposition. We may also indicate here that the deposition of Kashmir Singh gets ample corroboration from the confessional statements of the accused. The very fact that Kashmir Singh sustained injuries in the incident in question also points out that he was present at the place of occurrence and therefore, had occasions to notice the incident. Mr. Siddiqui has also submitted that the confessional statements were recorded in Hindi but the accused did not know Hindi. Hence, they could not understand what was recorded as their alleged confessional statements. Darshan Singh made a petition before the Design ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... t considered the case of a retracted confession and it has been indicated by this Court that the retracted confession may form the legal basis of conviction if the court is satisfied that it was true and was voluntarily made. It has however been indicated in the said decision that court shall not base a conviction on such retracted confession without corroboration. This Court has also indicated that though it is not a rule of law, but such course is followed as a rule of prudence. It has however been indicated specifically in the said decision that it cannot even be laid down as an inflexible rule of practice or prudence that under no circumstances such a conviction can be made without corroboration, for a court may, in a particular case, b ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
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