Co-Accused's Independent Confession Can Corroborate an Accomplice if Collusion Is Excluded: Supreme Court

The appellant was one of 18 persons tried jointly before the Chief Presidency Magistrate, Bombay, for conspiracy under Section 120-B IPC read with Section 167(81) of the Sea Customs Act and offences under the Foreign Exchange Regulation Act (para 1). The alleged conspiracy smuggled gold from the Persian Gulf by launches and Indian boats; he was said to have joined two trips, helping to take the gold away (para 2). The Bombay High Court dismissed his appeal (para 1). The case against him rested mainly on an accomplice (P.W. 1), corroborated by statements to customs officers under Section 171-A from co-accused, one of whom died after the trial concluded but before judgment (paras 1, 4).

The accomplice's earlier statement to customs officers was not used to corroborate him, since an accomplice cannot corroborate himself (para 5). Statements answering a Section 171-A notice lack a Magistrate's safeguards and "must be specially scrutinised" for threat or promise; if voluntary, they may be received against the maker and a co-accused jointly tried, as "Section 30 of the Evidence Act does not limit itself to confessions made to Magistrates" (para 6). Retraction alleging duress, made months later, could not be heeded; the deceased co-accused had been tried jointly to the end, while an absconder's statement was left out (paras 6, 12). A confession used against a co-accused stands lower than accomplice evidence, being untested by cross-examination (para 9). A retracted confession is "a weak link against the maker and more so against a co-accused" (para 10). Confessions made without a chance of prior concert may corroborate, but each must inspire confidence, and only when false implication is excluded can it lend assurance (para 11). Here the statements were recorded almost simultaneously, hours after the raid, leaving no time for tutoring, and were independently corroborated (para 12).