Summary
The Supreme Court acquitted the appellant after excluding his purported confession and those of two separately tried co-accused. The recording proceedings did not substantiate statutory warnings or voluntary confession; a certificate alone could not cure those defects. Under the amended TADA provision, a co-accused’s confession required joint trial. The appellant’s earlier abscondence did not permit dispensing with that statutory condition.
Issues
- Whether the appellant’s police-recorded confession was voluntary and usable under TADA safeguards.
- Whether confessions of separately tried co-accused could be used because the appellant had absconded.
Held
- A confession must be freely and voluntarily made with awareness of its nature and consequences. Reasonable doubt about voluntariness requires exclusion. TADA’s exceptional police-confession regime demands real compliance with its safeguards and the Kartar Singh directions. (¶¶ 15, 16, 17, 18)
- The contemporary record failed to substantiate the required warnings, and the questions referred merely to recording a statement rather than explaining confession and its consequences. A footnote or certificate unsupported by the proceedings did not prove voluntariness. The appellant’s petitions and surrounding circumstances required rejection of the confession. (¶¶ 19, 20, 21, 22, 23)
- Under Section 15 as amended in 1993, a confession could be substantive evidence against co-accused only when charged and tried together. Where joint trial did not occur, even because the later-tried accused had absconded, the statutory condition could not be rewritten to admit the earlier confessions. (¶¶ 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33)
- With the appellant’s confession rejected and the separately tried co-accused’s statements inadmissible against him, the Designated Court’s conviction could not stand. (¶¶ 23, 33, 34)
Result
Appeal allowed; conviction and sentence set aside and appellant acquitted. As he was already on bail, no release direction was necessary; his bail bond and any surety bond stood cancelled.