Statements to police and use thereof
AI Assist
Summary
If a person tells the police something during an investigation and it is written down, they should not sign it and that written record generally cannot be used at any inquiry or trial about that offence. If the person is later called as a prosecution witness and the written statement is proved, the accused may use parts of it to contradict that witness, and the prosecution may do so with the court's permission. Omitting a fact in the written police statement can count as a contradiction if the omission is significant in context.
Example
Priya tells police about a shop theft and her words are written in the police record without her signing. If she is later called as a prosecution witness and that written record is duly proved, the defence may use parts of it to contradict her, and the prosecution can do the same with the court's permission. Any part used can then be relied on in re-examination only to explain matters raised in cross-examination.
Bare Act
Enacted text(1) No statement made by any person to a police officer in the course of an investigation under this Chapter, shall, if reduced to writing, be signed by the person making it; nor shall any such statement or any record thereof, whether in a police diary or otherwise, or any part of such statement or record, be used for any purpose, save as hereinafter provided, at any inquiry or trial in respect of any offence under investigation at the time when such statement was made:
Provided that when any witness is called for the prosecution in such inquiry or trial whose statement has been reduced into writing as aforesaid, any part of his statement, if duly proved, may be used by the accused, and with the permission of the Court, by the prosecution, to contradict such witness in the manner provided by section 148 of the Bharatiya Sakshya Adhiniyam, 2023; and when any part of such statement is so used, any part thereof may also be used in the re-examination of such witness, but for the purpose only of explaining any matter referred to in his cross-examination.
(2) Nothing in this section shall be deemed to apply to any statement falling within the provisions of clause (a) of section 26 of the Bharatiya Sakshya Adhiniyam, 2023; or to affect the provisions of the proviso to sub-section (2) of section 23 of that Adhiniyam.
Explanation.-An omission to state a fact or circumstance in the statement referred to in sub-section (1) may amount to contradiction if the same appears to be significant and otherwise relevant having regard to the context in which such omission occurs and whether any omission amounts to a contradiction in the particular context shall be a question of fact.
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