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IN THE HIGH COURT OF GAUHATI, ASSAM, NAGALAND, MIZORAM AND ARUNACHAL PRADESH
MANISH CHOUDHURY, MITALI THAKURIA
Megha Timung S/o Shri Biong Timung – Appellant
Versus
State of Assam – Respondent
| Table of Content |
|---|
| 1. appeal against conviction for murder. (Para 1 , 2 , 3 , 4 , 5) |
| 2. arguments made regarding confession reliability. (Para 12 , 13 , 14) |
| 3. procedural rigor in recording confessions. (Para 24 , 25 , 26 , 27) |
| 4. testimony credibility and its implications. (Para 38 , 39 , 40) |
| 5. final ruling based on evidentiary shortcomings. (Para 49 , 50 , 51 , 52 , 53) |
JUDGMENT :
MANISH CHOUDHURY, J.
1. The instant criminal appeal from Jail under Section 383 , Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 [‘CrPC’ or ‘the Code’, for short] is preferred against a Judgment and Order dated 21.12.2020 passed by the Court of learned Sessions Judge, Karbi Anglong at Diphu in Sessions Case no. 41/1998. By the Judgment and Order dated 21.12.2020, the accused-appellant has been convicted for the offence of murder under Section 302 , INDIAN PENAL CODE [IPC] and he has been sentenced to undergo imprisonment for life and to pay a fine of Rs.10,000/-, in default of payment of fine, to undergo rigorous imprisonment for one year. It has been ordered that the period of detention already undergone by the accused-appellant shall be set-off under Section 428 , CrPC.
2. The First Information Report [FIR] was lodged befo
The confession recorded without statutory compliance is inadmissible, undermining the prosecution's circumstantial evidence in a murder appeal, reinforcing the principle of presumption of innocence.
For a conviction based on circumstantial evidence, the prosecution must establish a clear chain of evidence that excludes reasonable doubt regarding the accused's guilt.
The court upheld the conviction under Section 304 Part-II IPC, emphasizing that the absence of premeditation and the nature of the incident fell within Exception 4 of Section 300 IPC.
Extrajudicial confession can support a conviction if credible, corroborated by other evidence, and satisfies standards for circumstantial evidence.
The convicting based solely on circumstantial evidence and extra-judicial confessions requires corroborative proof and must adhere to well-established principles regarding such evidence.
Conviction based on circumstantial evidence requires a complete chain of evidence excluding all reasonable hypotheses of innocence; extrajudicial confessions need corroboration to be reliable.
Extra-judicial confessions made in police presence are inadmissible if not proven voluntary, requiring solid evidence for circumstantial convictions.
There is no doubt that convictions can be based on extra-judicial confession but it is well settled that in very nature of things, it is a weak piece of evidence.
(1) Extra-judicial confession – Extra-judicial confession is a weak piece of evidence – If extra-judicial confession suffers from material discrepancies or inherent improbabilities and does not appea....
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