Confession Before Police Cannot Be Included In Charge Sheet: Supreme Court

Under the section 25 of the Indian Evidence Act and corresponding provision section 23(1) of the Bharatiya Sakshya Adhiniyam, confessions made by an accused to police officer are not admissible as evidence.

A bench of Justice Abhay Oka and Justice Augustine George Masih asked the trial court to ignore confessional statements included in the charge sheet in a case.

“It is obvious that confessional statements recorded by the Police Officers which are part of the charge-sheet cannot remain a part thereof and the same must be ignored. The Trial Court to take note of this”, the court stated in its order.

The court said this while dealing with an appeal against Allahabad High Court's judgement which upheld trial court's decision to reject the appellant's discharge application.

The appellant is booked under Sections 272, 273 and 304 of IPC and Section 60(A) of the UP Excise Act.

Prashant Kumar, Director General of Police (DGP), Uttar Pradesh, filed an affidavit stating that, generally, confessional statements are not recorded by investigating officers in Uttar Pradesh. Kumar claimed that the current case is an exception where such statements were included in the charge-sheet by the police.

The DGP assured the Supreme Court that appropriate action will be taken against the investigating officer responsible for including the confessional statements.

Last month, the court had prima facie found the inclusion of statements made by the accused during the investigation in the charge-sheet illegal. The court had noted that some of these statements appeared to be confessional in nature, which the court found to be illegal.

The court had directed the DGP of Uttar Pradesh to investigate this practice and submit a personal affidavit indicating whether this practice of including statements, particularly confessions made to the police, in the charge-sheet was prevalent in Uttar Pradesh.

Case Title : Sanju Bansal v. State of Uttar Pradesh

Citation : 2024 LiveLaw (SC) 467