Girish Agrawal (ITO) 24 April 2012

Recording of confession before magistrate

in one case the one of the accused had admitted before the cbi authorities that he had forged some signatures. The CBI had not got the statement recorded before the magistrate. The IO during his statement has also stated that the accused had admitted thathe had forged the signatures. It was the duty of the CBI to get such confession recorded before the magistrate. The judge while delivering the judgement held that cognisance of the statement could not be taken since it was not recorded before the magistrate. I want to know that if it was the duty of the CBI to get the statement recorded before the magistrate & they did not do so what is the remedy available. Further because the accused was let off another innocent person was convicted. Now before the High court wha upt defence can be put up. And what is the action that can be taken against such judges for not delivering justice?

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Adv.R.P.Chugh (Advocate/Legal Consultant (rpchughadvocatesupremecourt@hotmail.com)) 24 April 2012

The Judge is mandated not to act on a confession made to a police officer u/s 25 of the Indian Evidence Act. If the Magistrate did not get recorded a confession before the Magistrate u/s 164 of the CrPC, the remedy would have been to bring this into the seisin of Magistrate concerned ASAP u/s 156(3) with a request for proper investigation. Whenever the accused agrees to make a confession he should be taken to Magistrate and confession recorded ASAP as per S.281 CrPC, if the CBI has not done that even after full opportunity to do so, it still does not give rise to criminal responsibility until their guilty intention to screen the real offender and to obliterate real evidence from coming can be proved.

Girish Agrawal (ITO) 25 April 2012

Sir, Thank You for your reply. In the instant case, there were three accused. Two of the accused had conspired to forge signatures of the third accused. During the course of investigation by the CBI, one of the accused admitted to having made the signatures of the third accused. The statement was not recorded by the CBI at the time the statement was given which would have been the right time to record such statement. The third accused whose signature had been forged came to know only at the end of the trial that the statement had not been recorded before the magistrate. Based on this infirmity, the special jugde has acquitted the actual criminal & has convicted the person whose signature has been forged. It took more than 10 years for the case to be decided by the lower court. Now the appeal is pending before the High Court. The IO during his statement has stated that he took the statement of the accused and the accused has admitted to having made the signatures. Now, at the stage of the High Court appeal, How should the third accused proceed to prove his innocence & the complicity of the CBI? It is evident that had the statement been recorded before the Magistrate, the third accused would be acquitted & it is only because of the non recording of the statement before the magistrate that tha actual person has been let go & an innocent person convicted. The instructions the the CBI are very clear that they have to get the confessional statement recorded before the magistrate immediately. I will be very thankful for any guidance that you can offer. The instruction is available on the CBI website. the link of the relevant document is

https://www.cbi.gov.in/aboutus/manuals/Chapter_14.pdf

and the directions are at page 5 para 14.24. Kindly guide.