Section 198(4) in Criminal Courts - Rules and Orders
(4)(a)Relevant statements made by an accused out of Court are admissible in evidence unless they are confessional statements barred by Section 24 or 25 or 26 of the Evidence Act or were made to a police officer in the course of the investigation and are therefore barred by Section 162 (1) of the Code. These sections, however, are qualified by Section 27 of the Evidence Act which provides that when any fact is deposed to as discovered in consequence of information received from an accused, in the custody of a police officer, so much of such information, whether it amounts to a confession or not, as relates distinctly to the fact thereby discovered, may be proved.(b)It is not always that a suspected or accused person gives information or makes the discovery. It sometimes happens that he is asked to produce articles of which information has been given by someone else, and produces them with such a statement as "Here they are." The circumstances which explain the statement must be ascertained from the witnesses and recorded. The investigation officer should be asked to explain what prompted him to go to such and such a man and make the enquiries which led to the discovery, and what his enquiries were. In house-breaking cases there may be a number of informations and discoveries, and in each case the record should show clearly what was the information leading to a particular discovery and whether it was the first news the police had of that part of the property s whereabouts. To make all these points clear the record of evidence should bring out as clearly and fully as possible :-(i)when the statement (and there may be several) giving the information was made, and where, and in whose presence;(ii)when the discovery was made, and where, and in whose presence;(iii)by which accused, if there are several;(iv)and through what circumstances the statements or discovery came to be made.(c)It is essential to have it on record how the property was produced and to describe where it was produced from. It is not enough to say boldly that "the accused produced the property" when in fact he produced it with difficulty from a well-concealed hiding-place in his roof or on the other hand produced it readily from bedside the wall of an open courtyard where it lay visible to any chance passer-by.(d)With this clearness of introductory and surrounding circumstance must go a full record of the statement made. The words admissible under Section 27 of the Evidence Act must be recorded in full and not cut down to a meaningless fragment. An investigating officer is required by Police Regulation 760 to make at the time a memorandum of the exact words used, and should be required when giving evidence to refer to the memorandum to refresh his memory under Section 159 of the Evidence Act. He should also be asked to explain when and how he made it. It appears that he has no authority to ask witnesses to attest such a document.(e)Presiding officers must bear in mind that the responsibility for obtaining in full and clear record of these points is on them and not on counsel, and they should be vigilant to see that all necessary details and explanation are brought on record so as to give a clear and unbroken account of what happened.
