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6. Shri Vimal Chandra S. Dave, counsel appearing for appellant Nos.A- 4 and A-10 argued that the confessions of the appellants are liable to be rejected because both Shri A.K. Majumdar and Shri Harbhajan Ram, Superintendents of Police, CBI, who were actively supervising the investigation, had successfully tutored the minds of the appellants and induced them to make confessions. Shri Dave submitted that all the accused were kept in the custody of the Investigating Officer for 10 days before their confessions were recorded but this aspect has been ignored by the trial Court while deciding the issue of voluntary character of the confessions. Shri Dave pointed out that appellant No.A-10 retracted his confession on 25.7.1996 itself when he was produced before Chief Judicial Magistrate, Delhi and argued that the trial Court committed serious illegality by relying upon the retracted confession. Dr. Sushil Gupta argued that there is no evidence to link accused with the conspiracy allegedly hatched by Rasool Party and the learned Trial Judge committed serious error by convicting them. In support of their arguments learned counsel relied upon the judgments of this Court in Raja Khima vs. State of Saurashtra [AIR 1956 SC 217], Sarwan Singh Rattan Singh vs. State of Punjab [AIR 1957 SC 637], Shankaria vs. State of Rajasthan [1978 (3) SCC 435], Aloke Nath Dutta vs. State of West Bengal [2006 (13) Scale 467] and State of Rajasthan vs. Ajit Singh [2007 (12) Scale 451].

(Emphasis supplied]

17. The same view was reiterated in Raja Khima's case, and it was held that confession made by a person accused of an offence can be relied upon for convicting him only if the Court is satisfied that the same was made voluntarily. Applying this principle in Bharat vs. State of U.P. [1971 (3) SCC 950], the Court observed that "the voluntary nature of the confession depends upon whether there was any threat, inducement or promise and its truth is judged in the context of the entire prosecution case and that the confession must fit into the proved facts and not run counter to them." The Court held that "when the voluntary character of the confession and its truth are accepted it is safe to rely on it. Indeed a confession, if it is voluntary and true and not made under any inducement or threat or promise, is the most patent piece of evidence against the maker. The Court also dealt with the issue of retracted confession and held that "a court may take into account the retracted confession, but it must look for the reasons for the making of the confession as well as for its retraction, and must weigh the two to determine whether the retraction affects the voluntary nature of the confession or not. If the court is satisfied that it was retracted because of an after thought or advice, the retraction may not weigh with the court if the general facts proved in the case and the tenor of the confession as made and the circumstances of its making and withdrawal warrant its user. ....... Therefore, it can be stated that a true confession made voluntarily may be acted upon with slight evidence to corroborate it, but a retracted confession requires the general assurance that the retraction was an after thought and that the earlier statement was true."

18. The legal position on retracted confession was clarified in Pyare Lal Bhargava vs. State of Rajasthan [AIR 1963 SC 1094] in the following words:

"A retracted confession may form the legal basis of a conviction if the court is satisfied that it was true and was voluntarily made. But it has been held that a court shall not base a conviction on such a confession without corroboration. It is not a rule of law, but is only rule of prudence. It cannot even be laid down as an inflexible rule of practice or prudence that under no circumstances can such a conviction be made without corroboration, for a court may, in a particular case, be convinced of the absolute truth of a confession and prepared to act upon it without corroboration; but it may be laid down as a general rule of practice that it is unsafe to rely upon a confession, much less on a retracted confession, unless the court is satisfied that the retracted confession is true and voluntarily made and has been corroborated in material particulars."

49. Likewise, there is no substance in the argument of the learned counsel that the confessions of the appellant Nos.A-4 to A-8 and A-10 should be discarded because the same had been retracted on the first available opportunity. As mentioned above, the only statement made by appellant No.A-10 before Chief Metropolitan Magistrate, Delhi on 25.7.1996 was that he had not made any confession. However, he did not contest his signatures on the confessional statement made before PW-103, Shri Harbhajan Ram. When the appellants were produced before the concerned Magistrate at Ahmedabad, none of them gave out that he had not made confessional statement or that his signatures had been obtained on the blank paper or that he was made to sign on the prepared statement or that he had been subjected to torture, or any threat or allurement was given to him to make confession. While they were in jail, none of the confessing appellants made any application to the Court that he wants to retract the confession.