Confession--Police Presence During Recording--Statement Recorded Under Section 164 CrPC in Presence of Police Officer Inadmissible and Cannot Sustain Conviction
A confessional statement recorded under Section 164 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 in the presence of a police officer in the recording room cannot be treated as voluntary and is inadmissible as substantive evidence for recording conviction. This position flows from principle (ix) laid down by the Supreme Court in Rabindra Kumar Pal alias Dara Singh v. Republic of India, which mandates that no police officer shall remain present at the time of recording of a confessional statement. Extra-judicial confessions unsupported by independent corroboration also cannot sustain conviction.
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