LexSITA RAM versus STATE OF UTTAR PRADESH
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( ·~ 265 A SITA RAM v. STATE OF UTTAR PRADESH B April 25, 1965 c D E [A. K. SARKAR, C.J .• J. R. MUDHOLKAR AND R. S. BACHAWAT, JJ.) Indian Evidence Act. 1872 (1 of 1872), s. 25-Confessional letter to Police Officer-Admissibitity. The appellant was convicted for urder under s. 302 Indian Pe- nal Code. The prosecution relied on amongst other materials, a letter. The letter contained a confession and was addressed to the Sub- Inspector. The appellant wrote the letter with the intention that it should be received by the Sub-Inspector, kept it near the dead body and left the l:ouse after locking it. The lock was broken open and the letter was recovered by the Sub-Inspector. In appeal to this Court the admissibility of this letter was challenged. HELD: (Per Curium) There was sufficient material on the re- cord, apart from this letter, establishing the guilt of the appellant. Per Sarkar, C.J. and Mudholkar, J :-The letter was admissible in evidence. No doubt, the letter contained a confession and \Vas addressed to a police officer. That could not make it a confession made to the po- lice officer which is within the bar created by s. 25 of the Evidence Act. The Police Officer was not nearby when the letter was written or knew that .it was being written. In such circumstances quite ob- viously the letter would not have been a confession to the police offi- cer if the '\Vords "Sub-Inspector" had not b-een written. Nor it can become one in similar circumstances only because the words "Sub- Inspector" has been written there. It would still have not been a confession made to a police officer for the simple reason that it was not so made from any point of view. [267 H-268 Bl Per Bachawat J.,-The letter was inadmissible in evidence and F was a confession made to a police officer. [268 D-E] A confe:;sion to a police officer was within the bar of s. 25, though it was not made in his presence·. A confessional letter written to a P<r lice officer and sent to him by post, m·essenger or otherv,.rise is not outside the ban of s. 25 because the police officer was ignorant of the letter at the moment when it was being written. [268 G]. R. V. Hurrioole, (1876) I.L.R. 1 Cal. 207, approved. G CRIMINAL APPELLATE JURISDICTION: Criminal Appeal No. H 118 of 1964. Appeal from the judgment and order dated March 2, 1964 of the Allahabad High Court in Criminal Appeal No. 2531 of 1963 referred No. 160 of 1963. K. L. Sharma and Harbans Singh, for the appellant 0. l' Rana, for the respondent. L."S5SCI-l 9(a) 266 SUPREME COURT REPORTS [!966) SUPP. B.C.R. The Judgment of SARKAR, C.J. and Mt:DHOLKAR, J. was deli- A vered by MUDllOLKAR. J. BACHAWAT, J. delivered a separate Opinion. Modholkar, J. The Additional Sessions Judge, Kumaon, after convicting the appellant Sita Ram of an offence under s. 302, Indian Penal Code for the murder of his wife Sindura Rani. has • sentenced him to death. The High Court of Allahabad affirmed his conviction but reduced the sentence to one of imprisonment for life. The fact that Sindura Rani met with a homicidal death is not in dispute. What is. however. contended on b~half of the appeUant is that there is no e"idcncc on the basis of which his conviction could be based. Admilledly there arc no ey~-witnesscs to the occur- rence. The prosecution case against him rests on the followin& material: (I) motive; 12l opportunity; (3) subsecruent conduct; (<4) false explanation and (5) confessional statements. There is ample evidence on record to show that the relations between the appellant and his wife were very much strained, that Ute two were living apart and that this was because the appellant suspected that his wife was a woman of loose character. This evi- dence consists of the testimony of some near relatives and also of several letters written by the appellant to bis wife Simlura Rani, to his mother-in-law Inder Kaur (P.W. 21 and to his brother-in-law Tilak Raj (P.W. II. The appellant had denied that the letters were D in his hand-wr;ting but it has been found by l;>oth the courts below that they were in fact written by him. The finding of each of the ii two courts below that the relations between the appellant and his wife were strained bec;1Use the appdlant not merely suspected the fidelity of his wife but also charged her with unchastity being one of fact cannot be lightly permitted to be questione,1 in an appeal by special leave. r\o grou
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