The bench of Justices BR Gavai, Vikram Nath and Sanjay Karol has reiterated in a judgment delivered on 28.03.2023 that Extra-judicial confession is a weak piece of evidence and requires strong evidence to corroborate it

While acquitting a man in a 2007 murder case, the Supreme Court said it must be established that extra-judicial confession was completely voluntary and truthful.

The bench said "Extra-judicial confession is a weak piece of evidence and especially when it has been retracted during trial. It requires strong evidence to corroborate it and also it must be established that it was completely voluntary and truthful. In view of the discussion made above, we do not find any corroborating evidence to support the extra judicial confession, rather the evidence led by prosecution is inconsistent with the same".

The order of the Apex Court cam in petition filed by murder accused Indrajit Das challenging the order of the Tripura High Court which dismissed the appeal filed by him and confirmed the conviction pronounced by the trial court u/s 302/34, 201 IPC and awarded imprisonment for life.

Advocate Madhumita Bhattacharjee appeared for the accused.

As per the prosecution, accused along with a juvenile confessed before them that they had gone to Fatikroy and Kanchanbari area in North Tripura district on the bike of the deceased Kaushik Sarkar. While Sarkar was sitting on the motorcycle, both the accused assaulted him with a big knife and threw his helmet, purse and two knives in the nearby jungle and dragged the body and the motorcycle to a nearby river and threw them into it, according to the police.

The top court also held that in case of circumstantial evidence, motive has an important role to play.

The three bench said, "Motive may also have a role to play even in a case of direct evidence but it carries much greater importance in a case of circumstantial evidence than a case of direct evidence. It is an important link in the chain of circumstances".

The apex court said the entire case of the prosecution proceeds on presumption that Sarkar has died.
The Court said "The principle of corpus delicti (body of the crime) has judgments on both sides stating that conviction can be recorded in the absence of the recovery of the corpus and the other view that no conviction could be recorded in the absence of recovery of the corpus."

The Top Court further said that "The later view is for the reason that if subsequently the corpus appears as alive, someone may have been convicted and sentenced and suffered incarceration for no crime committed by him".

Case Details:-

CRIMINAL APPEAL NO.906 OF 2016
PULEN PHUKAN & ORS. …APPELLANTS
VERSUS
THE STATE OF ASSAM …RESPONDENT

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