TMI Blog1965 (5) TMI 37X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... .m. The information was reduced to writing by the officerin-charge, Sub-Inspector H. P. Choudhury, and the appellant affixed his left thumb-impression on the report. The Sub Inspector immediately took cognizance of the offence, and arrested the appellant. The next day, the Sub Inspector in the company of the appellant went to the house of Ratni, where the appellant pointed out the dead bodies of Ratni and Dilu and also a place in the orchard of Ratni covered with bushes and grass, where he had concealed a tangi. The appellant then took the Sub Inspector and witnesses to Kasiari garha khet and pointed out the dead body of Chamin lying in a ditch covered with Ghanghu. The appellant then took the Sub Inspector and the witnesses to Dungijharan Hills, where he pointed out the dead body of Somra lying in the slope of the hills to the north. The Sub Inspector also recovered from the appellant's house a chadar stained with human blood. The evidence of P.W. 6 shows that the appellant had gone to the forest on the morning of August 11, 1963. The medical evidence discloses incised wounds on all the dead bodies. The injuries were caused by a sharp-cutting weapon such as a tangi. All the ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ) Reaching there all on a sudden I began to strike her on the head with tangi whereupon she dropped down dead at that very place. (10) Near her was Somra's son aged about 3 -4 years. (11) I also struck him with the tangi. He also fell down and died. (12) I finished the line of my Barima so that no one could take share in her properties. (13) 1 hid the tangi in the jhari of my Barima's house. (14) Later on I narrated the occurrence to my chacha (father's brother) Lerha that I killed the aforesaid four persons with tangi. After sometime (15) I started for the P.S. to lodge information and reaching the P.S. T make this statement before you. (16) My Barima had all along been quarrelling like a Murukh (foolish woman) and being vexed, I did so. (17) All the dead bodies and the tangi would be lying in those places. I can point them out. ( 1 8) This is my statement. I got it read over to me and finding it correct, I affixed my left thumb-impression. We have divided the statement into 18 parts. Parts 1, 15 and 18 show that the appellant went to the police station to make the report. Parts 2 and 16 show his motive for the murders. Parts 3, 5, 8 and 10 disclose the movements a ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... than a police officer. Section 26 does not qualify the absolute ban imposed by s. 25 on a confession made to a police officer. Section 27 is in the form of a proviso, and partially lifts the ban imposed by ss. 24, 25 and 26. It provides that when any fact is deposed to as discovered in consequence of information received from a person accused of any offence, in the custody of a police officer, so much of such information, whether it amounts to a confession or not, as relates distinctly to the fact thereby discovered, may be proved. Section 162 of the Code of Criminal Procedure forbids the use of any statement made by any person to a police officer in the course of an investigation for any purpose at any enquiry or trial in respect of the offence Order investigation, save as mentioned in the proviso and in cases falling under sub-s (2), and it specifically provides that nothing in it shall be deemed to affect the provisions of S. 27 of the Evidence Act. The words of s. 162 are wide enough to include a confession made to a police officer in the course of an investigation. A statement or confession made in the course of an investigation may be recorded by a Magistrate under s. 164 of ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ory matter can amount to 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 admission that the accused is the owner of and was in recent possession of the knife or revolver which caused a death with no explanation of any other man's possession. These observations received the approval of this Court in Palvin. der Kaur v. The State of Punjab ([1953] S.C.R. 94, 104). In State of U.P. v. Deoman Upadhyaya ([1961] 1 S.C.R. 14, 21), Shah, J. referred to a confession as a statement made by a person stating or suggesting the inference that he has committed a crime. Shortly put, a confession may be defined as an admission of the offence by a person charged with the offence. A statement which contains self-exculpatory matter cannot amount to a confession, if the exculpatory statement is of some fact which, if true, would negative the offence alleged to ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... was drunk; I was driving a car at a speed of 80 miles per hour; I could see A on the road at a distance of 80 yards; I did not blow the horn; I made no attempt to stop the car; the car knocked down A. No single sentence in this statement amounts to a confession, but the statement read as a whole amounts to a confession of an offence under s. 304-A of the Indian Penal Code, and it would not be permissible to admit in evidence each sentence separately as a nonconfessional statement. Again, take a case where a single sentence in a statement amounts to an admission of an offence. 'A' states I struck 'B' with a tangi and hurt him. In consequence of the injury 'B' died. 'A' committed an offence and is chargeable under various sections of the Indian Penal Code. Unless he brings his case within one of the recognised exceptions, his statement amounts to an admission of an offence, but the other parts of the statement such as the motive, the preparation, the absence of provocation, concealment of the weapon and the subsequent conduct, all throw light upon the gravity of the offence and the intention and knowledge of the accused, and negatives the right of p ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... co-accused. Section 30 thus shows that matters affecting other persons may from part of the confession. If the first information report is given by the accused to a police officer and amounts to a confessional statement, proof of the confession is prohibited by s. 25. The confession includes not only the admission of the offence but all other admissions of incriminating facts related to the offence contained in the confessional statement. No part of the confessional statement is receivable in evidence except to the extent that the ban of s. 25 is lifted by s. 27. Our attention is not drawn to any decision of this Court or of the Privy Council on the question whether apart from s. 27, a confessional first information report given by an accused is receivable in evidence against him. Decisions of the High Courts on this point are hopelessly conflicting. They contain all shades of opinion ranging from total exclusion of the confession to total inclusion of all admissions of incriminating facts except the actual commission of the crime. In Harji v. Emperor(1) and Noor Muhammad v. Emperor(2), the Lahore High Court held that the entire confessional first information report was inad ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ed in the judgment under appeal. Some of the decided cases took the view that if a part of the report is property severable from the strict confessional part, then the severable part could be tendered in evidence. We think that the separability test is misleading, and the entire confessional statement is hit by s. 25 and save and except as provided by s. 27 and save and except the formal part identifying the accused as the maker of the report, no part of it could be tendered in evidence. We think, therefore, that save and except parts 1, 15 and 18 identifying the appellant as the maker of the first information report and save and except the portions coming within the purview of s. 27, the entire first information report must be excluded from evidence. Section 27 applies only to information received from a person accused of an offence in the custody of a police officer. Now, the Sub Inspector stated that he arrested the appellant after he gave the first information report leading to the discovery. Prima facie, therefore, the appellant was not in the custody of a police officer when he gave the report, unless it can be said that he was the in constructive custody. On the questi ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
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