Point of law: There is no absolute rule that an extra-judicial confession can never be the basis of conviction, although ordinarily an extra-judicial confession should be corroborated by some other material." In this very judgment it is also mentioned that extra-judicial confession is a week piece of evidence and that the Court must ensure that the same inspires confidence and is corroborated by other prosecution evidence. In order to accept extra-judicial confession, it must be voluntary and must inspire confidence. If the Court is satisfied that extra-judicial confession is voluntary, it can be acted upon to pass conviction.

JUDGMENT :

Dinesh Kumar Singh-I, J.

1. Heard Sri Dileep Kumar, learned Counsel for the appellant along with Sri Sanjay Tripathi, Advocate and Sri J.P. Tripathi, learned A.G.A. appearing for the State.

2. This criminal appeal has been preferred against the judgment and order dated 23.3.1985 passed by IInd Additional Session Judge, Hamirpur in Session Trial No. 90 of 1981 (State v. Shiv Kumar and three others) whereby accused-appellant No. 4 Mool Chand, accused-appellant No. 2 Har Narain, accused-appellant No. 3 Veer Narain have been convicted and sentenced under section 148 IPC with two years R.I. and under section 302 read with section 149 IPC with life imprisonment and under section 404 IPC with two years R.I. Further directed that all the sentences shall run concurrently. Accused-appellant No. 1 Shiv Kumar has been convicted under section 302 read with section 120-B IPC and has been sentenced with life imprisonment.

3. In brief, the prosecution case as disclosed in the FIR is that the cousin brother of the informant Shiv Kumar son of Prahlad Brahman, resident of village Banki, Ayodhya son of Gopal Tiwari was sitting at the door of his house and was warming himself in front of 'Kaura' (kind of bone fire) on 2.12.1980 and with him were sitting Parshu Ram Teli, Prem Narayan Brahman, Surendra Brahman, Shiv Nath @ Chunuvad Nai (Barber) and Mahesh son of Ram Swamp Brahman at about 8.30 p.m., right then about six miscreants, out of whom one was armed with rifle, one was armed with country made pistol and three were armed with guns and one was armed with Lathi, came there and killed Ayodhya Prasad by shooting at him and thereafter opened the main door of his house and entered into it and after making fires from their respective weapons, also killed Ayodhy's wife namely Smt. Girja and looted away Rs.2,000/-, some jewellery and licensed gun No. 5622 along with 20 cartridges. There is a Bakhri belonging to the informant Shiv Kumar and Ayodhya Prasad. Thus, the persons who were sitting with Ayodhya and were warming themselves, were also beaten by lathis. Informant after running away from there, started screaming, hearing which Lallu Singh with licensed gun, Lakkhu Singh Thakur, Divya Teli, Chhota Ahir and Chandra Bhushan Brahman and many other persons of the same village came there and Lallu Singh made fire upon the miscreants by his licensed gun. The informant and all the persons of his house and those who were warming themselves in front of 'Kaura' and many other villagers had seen the accused in the light of electricity when the accused were indulging in loot and he can identify the assailants, if they come before him and also he would be able to identify his looted articles. The miscreants were speaking local language and all of them were young and hefty, details of their clothes have also been mentioned in the written report and it is further mentioned that they continued to indulge in looting activity for half an hour. The dead body of Ayodhya was lying outside his house and that of his wife was inside the house and mat he come to lodge report so that police may take action. The said report was got scribed by Bhagwan Din Gupta.

4. On the said written report being given at the police station Sumepur on 2.12.1980 at 23.20 hours (11.20 p.m.), a Case Crime No. 315 of 1980 was registered under section 396 IPC against the six unknown miscreants by Head Constable Rajendra Veer Singh (PW 6) who prepared chik FIR on the basis of the said written report which is Exhibit Ka-1 and entry of this case was made by him in G.D. at report No. 31, at 23.20 hours, which is Exhibit Ka-2 on 12.12.1980 at 7.30 A.M. The accused Mool Chand @ Teli was despatched to District Jail Baparda with the assistance of Constable Dev Shankar and Ram Shankar and made its entry in G.D. at report No. 9 which is Exhibit Ka-3.

5. The investigation of this case was handed ov