Rejecting the death penalty imposed by a trial court on four members of the Dandupalya gang in a murder case, the High Court of Karnataka on Friday sentenced three of them to 10 years rigorous imprisonment by convicting them only on charges of robbery, and acquitting another from all the charges.
A Division Bench comprising Justice Ravi Malimath and Justice John Michael Cunha passed the order while partly allowing the appeals filed by Venkatesha alias Chandra, Munikrishna alias Krishna, and Nalla Thimma alias Thimma. The Bench acquitted Lakshmamma alias Laksmi.
It was the case of prosecution that the four, on the pretext of asking for drinking water had entered the house of one Sudhamani in Kamakshipalya police limits on March 22, 2000, and later escaped with gold ornaments after murdering her.
Pointing out that the trial court had convicted them on the charges of dacoity with murder [Section 396 of the Indian Penal Code] based on their voluntary statement, the Bench said: “It is trite law that no conviction would lie on the basis of the voluntary statements recorded by the police officers while the accused were in their custody.”
“Section 25 of the Evidence Act in unmistakable terms provides that no confession made to a police officer is relevant or shall be proved against a person accused of any offence... Section 26 mandates that no confession by any person while he is in custody of a police officer shall be relevant or proved against him. It is unfortunate that the learned Sessions Judge has placed reliance on Exhibits P15, P16 and P17, namely the voluntary statements of the accused to base the conviction,” the Bench observed.
Observing that except the proof of recovery of some gold jewellery of victim at the instance of three of the convicts, the Bench said “no other evidence is produced by the prosecution to show that robbery and the murder occurred at the same time. Therefore, the conviction of the accused under Section 396 cannot be sustained.”
