The admissibility of statements made by accused persons under Section 27 of the Evidence Act and their interaction with Section 162 of the Criminal Procedure Code.

Stodart, J.

1. The two accused in this case have been convicted of the murder of Boya Baligadu. The first accused has been sentenced to death and the second accused has been sentenced to transportation for life. The accused file separate petitions of appeal. In the referred trial, the question for decision is whether the sentence of death passed upon the first accused should, if his appeal fails, be confirmed.

2. There is no doubt on the night of the 25th of October, 1938, the deceased was murdered while he lay asleep in the pial of a temple near his house. The cause of death were four great wounds in the neck which must have been caused by a heavy cutting weapon. The Inspector of Police arrived at the village at 5-30 P.M. on the 26th. Suspicion was directed towards the first accused and search was made for him but he was not found till the 28th. On the 28th he was taken into custody and he made a statement to the Inspector in the presence of respectable persons which was reduced to writing. He then went with the Inspector and the Panchayatdars to his maternal uncles house where he lives. From a loft in this house, he took and handed over to the Inspector a billhook which had blood stains on it. That house was immediately searched and in a box in one of the rooms, two blood-stained articles were found, namely, a banian and an upper cloth. These three articles were examined by the Chemical Examiner and the Imperial Serologist and were found to be stained with human blood. It was conclusively proved that the first accused was carrying on an intrigue with trie younger daughter of the deceased and that the deceased had very strongly objected to such conduct. It was also satisfactorily proved that the second accused, a washerman, was affording the first accused opportunities and facilities to carry on this intrigue and that the deceased was equally angry with him for that reason. The evidence on this point has not been challenged on appeal. P. W. 10, the uncle of the first accused, deposed that on the night of the crime, the first accused went to sleep on the pial outside his house and in the early morning he found that the accused had shifted his position and was sleeping outside the house. He also deposed that the first accused absconded in the morning when the crime was discovered. P.W. 7, who is the concubine of the second accused, says that on the night of the crime at midnight, the first accused came to the house where she and second accused were sleeping and woke up the second accused and took him away for some purpose.

3. Thus, there is evidence that the first accused had a motive to murder the deceased, that the first accused was abroad on the night of the crime and that two days after the crime, the first accused knew the hiding place of a weapon of the kind which must have been used to commit the crime and which was proved to be stained with human blood; also that a banian belonging to the accused--see the evidence of P.W. 10 - was stained with human blood and was found in the house where the first accused lived. In addition to that evidence, the statement made to the Inspector in the presence of several respectable persons has been put in evidence against the first accused under Section 27 of the Indian Evidence Act. That statement certainly complies with the provisions of Section 27. It was a statement which led to the discovery of the weapon with which the crime was committed. The accused said:

The billhook with which I murdered the deceased has been kept by me in the house in which I am living on a stone slab projection from the wall which is on the northern side of the strong room. If you follow me, I shall pick it up and produce it.

4. In the record of this statement Ex. K which was made at the time and which is signed by three of the Panchayatdars, the opening words of the accused are, "The yatakodavali which I used in this case", but obviously the accused would not use an expression like that. The Inspector sa