The admissibility of recorded conversations and the request for a witness to give his sample voice for comparison to establish the credibility of evidence.

RANJIT SINGH, J

1. Petitioner is facing prosecution for an offence under N.D.P.S.Act with the allegation that he was found in conscious possession of 154.50 Kgs. of charas. The case set up by the petitioner is that he was picked up by N.C.B. officials from Panipat at 4.30 P.M. on 9.2.2005. The petitioner is Israeli National and was implicated by N.C.B. on the basis of a secret information received by Headquarters at Delhi. On the basis of this information, Intensive Surveillance was carried out which revealed that petitioner along with a Czech National and one Narinder Gupta was conspiring to smuggle out a huge consignment of charas. On 9.2.2005, a secret information was received by one Intelligence Officer Ravi Kant Pawar that the petitioner along with his co-accused were suspected to be hiding in Plot No.653, Industrial Area, Phase-1, Chandigarh. Mr.Ravi Kant Pawar constituted a team and reached the said plot at about 2.00 P.M. in the after-noon. It is then that the petitioner and his co-accused were apprehended with 154.50 Kgs. of charas. The petitioner and his co-accused were accordingly arrested. The petitioner accordingly is facing prosecution.

2. During the pendency of the proceedings, Mr.Ravi Kant Pawar was apprehended while accepting bribe of Rs.40,000/-from one Devinder Kumar, brother of Navinder Kumar, co-accused of the petitioner. He was then arrested by C.B.I.Chandigarh and R.C.No.18 dated 21.6.2006 was registered under Section 7 of the Prevention of Corruption Act. The examination of the witnesses is in progress. The case set up by the petitioner is that he has been falsely implicated after having been arrested from Panipat on 9.2.2005. His case further is that he is shown arrested from Chandigarh.

3. To substantiate his defence, the petitioner has produced on record a recorded conversation of Mr.Ravi Kant Pawar, where he has admitted that the petitioner was arrested from Panipat and thereafter brought to Chandigarh. In the video recording, Mr.Ravi Kant Pawar even admitted that he would give all necessary details of phone call records, which would clearly establish that he was at Panipat at the relevant time where he arrested the petitioner.

4. FIR No.782 dated 18.12.2007 also stands registered against Mr.Ravi Kant Pawar and three others alleging that petitioner was abducted from Panipat on 9.2.2005 and falsely implicated in the present case. It is alleged that Mr.Ravi Kant Pawar had demanded a ransom of Rs.three crores to release the petitioner as otherwise he threatened to involve the petitioner in a case under the N.D.P.S.Act. The petitioner complains that prosecution had deliberately held back Mr.Ravi Kant Pawar from examination and for that purpose sought repeated adjournments. When Mr.Ravi Kant Pawar was produced as witness and was to be cross-examined, an application was made for playing the Video CD, which contained the conversation recorded with Mr.Ravi Kant. His cross-examination was deferred. This request was allowed and the Audio/Video CD was played. Ravi Kant Pawar was then questioned about his voice/picture appearing on Audio/Video CD etc. He denied that the voice appearing on the CD was his. The contents of the CD were also termed as wrong. Mr.Ravi Kant Pawar replied in the negative when questioned if he was prepared to give his sample voice. Defence then moved an application for directing the witness to give his sample voice so that it could be got compared with Audio/Video CD, which had been prepared by carrying out a sting operation.

5. As is apparent, the defence wants to ask these questions to shake the credit of the witness by injuring his character and in the process wishes to impeach the credit of the witness. Such line of questioning during cross-examination is regulated by Sections 146 and 155 of the Evidence Act. Section 146 of the Evidence Act provides that when a witness is cross-examined, he may be questioned which tends to test his veracity to shake his credit by injuring