TMI Blog1973 (9) TMI 55X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... hani of the Railway Preventive Section, on receipt of some information, went to room No. 2 on the second floor of Bori Chawl in the 13th lane, Kamathipura, Bombay. The accused was found present there, holding a bag. The said bag was taken into possession by the Sub-Inspector and was found to contain 25 bars of gold, weighing ten tolas each, of the value of Rs. 78,400/-. The bars had foreign markings. The Sub-Inspector arrested the accused for an offence under Section 124 of the Bombay Police Act. As the articles recovered from the accused consisted of gold bars with foreign marking, the matter was entrusted to the Customs Officer H.C. Advani (PW 2). The gold bars too were handed over to Advani. Advani recorded statement Ex. A of the accused ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ct was thereafter framed against the accused. There was a further cross-examination of these two witnesses on February 12, 1964 after the framing of the charge. In February 25, 1964 the trial court stayed further proceedings in the case to await the decision of a case pending in this Court, wherein it was stated a question of law having bearing upon the present case was involved. The proceedings in the case were revived on 10-11-1967 after this Court gave its decision in the other case. In the meanwhile, Mr. Nasrullah, Chief Presidency Magistrate had retired and had been succeeded by Mr. Gehani. It was then noticed that the charge framed against the accused by Mr. Nasrullah had not been signed by him. Fresh change in identical terms was the ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... e High Court in maintaining the conviction of the accused has also relied upon his statement Ex. A which was recorded by Customs Officer Advani (PW 2). According to statement Ex. A, the accused is a goldsmith and has his own shop. On the day of occurrence at about 2.30 p.m., it is stated, one Hafizji came to the shop of the accused and told him to keep the bag in question for about an hour whereafter Hafizji undertook to take the bag back. After the departure of Hafizji, the accused felt that the bag was heavy. This fact aroused the suspicion of the accused and he took the bag upstairs to the room which had been taken by the accused on rent. The bag was then found to contain 56 gold bars of ten tolas each with foreign markings. The accused ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... that the question whether it is open to the court to accept the inculpatory part of the statement even though the court rejects the exculpatory part was considered by the Constitution Bench of this Court in the case of Nishi Kant Jha v. State of Bihar, (1969) 2 SCR 1033. This Court in that case quoted with approval the following observations from page 502 of Taylor's Law of Evidence 11th Edition : "In the proof of confessions—as in the case of admissions in civil causes—the whole of what the prisoner said on the subject at the time of making the confession should be taken together........ But if, after the entire statement of the prisoner has been given in evidence, the prosecutor can contradict any part of it, he is at liberty to do s ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... accepted. In the circumstances, we find no infirmity in the judgment of the High Court in so far as it has accepted the inculpatory part of statement Ex. A of the accused. There is, in our opinion, no cogent ground to disbelieve the statement of the accused that the room from which the bag containing gold bars had been recovered had been taken by him on rent. This part of the statement clearly goes to show that the accused was in possession of the gold bars with foreign markings. 10. A faint-hearted submission was also made at the end to the effect that statement Ex. A of the accused was hit by Article 20 of the Constitution. There is, in our opinion, no force in this submission because there is nothing to show that the accused made that ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
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