Criminal Trial. Though confession statement of accused is inadmissible in evidence, if it is made before the Investigating officer during investigation while in custody, the same can be used by Police as information for the purpose of lodging the complaint and registering the case against the accused. Karnataka High Court.

Chandrashekara vs State of Karnataka. Criminal Appeal 1574/2015 decided on 29 October 2020. Justice B. Veerappa and Justice K. Natarajan.

Judgment Link: http://judgmenthck.kar.nic.in/judgmentsdsp/bitstream/123456789/346192/1/CRLA1574-15-23-10-2020.pdf

HELD: 34. …..Though the confession statement is inadmissible in evidence if it is made before the Investigating officer  during investigation while in custody, but the confession statement made before PW.1 as well as PW.13 was used  by the Police and PW.1, as information for the purpose of lodging the complaint and registering the case against the accused, which is permissible.

35. In the case of Faddi vs. The State of  Madhya Pradesh reported in 1964 AIR  1850  the Hon’ble Apex Court has held as under: “When the person lodging the FIR is subsequently accused of the offence, it is an admission of certain facts which have a bearing on the question to be determined by the Court. Not being a confession, nor a statement made to a Police Officer in the course of  investigation, its admissibility is not barred either by Section 25 or Section 162 of Cr.P.C.”

36. In the case of Phillips vs. State of Karnataka reported in 1980 Crl.L.J 171 (Kant), the Co-ordinate Bench of this Court has held as under: “In the case of information given by the accused is confessional in character, it has to  be looked into to decide whether any part of it would be admissible as first information setting the criminal law in motion.”

Compiled by S. Basavaraj, Advocate, Daksha Legal