Sections 25 and 26 of Evidence Act must be strictly construed

Gauhati High Court: The conviction and sentence awarded to the appellants in a criminal case for the offences punishable under Section 302 read with Section 34 IPC, was set aside by a Division Bench comprising of Ajit Singh, CJ and Prasanta Kumar Deka, J.
The appellants were accused of committing sexual assault on the deceased and subsequently killing her. They were booked under the above said sections of IPC and convicted by the trial court. The conviction of the appellants was based on the alleged extra judicial confession made by them. The appellants challenged the said decision of the trial court.
The High Court inter alia found that the alleged extra judicial confession was made in police custody. Sections 25 and 26 have to be strictly construed. Such confession, according to the Court, was inadmissible in light of Section 26 of Evidence Act. Further, the averments of the alleged extra judicial confession were not proved in light of the post-mortem report. It was alleged that the appellants had confessed that they raped the deceased and then killed her. However, in the PMR, no such fact was recorded. Therefore, the conviction and sentence awarded to the appellants was quashed and set aside. [Dulu Basak v. State of Assam,  2018 SCC OnLine Gau 320,  order dated 02-05-2018]