1936 (10) TMI 13

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....e facts are slightly unusual. It appears that the police were investigating in Kurnool a case relating to the receipt of stolen goods. In the course of that investigation they went to the shop of the petitioner who is a shroff. They did not find any stolen goods but the cupboard was not wholly bare. In a tin which I think may be said to be in the possession of the petitioner was found a rupee whic....

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....and gold purchased or sold by him. I opened the tin and found only the coins used for weighing as stated by the accused" (including the rupee). That and the production of the rupee were all the evidence against the petitioner at the stage when the evidence for the prosecution has been called and I think it is clear that at that stage the Magistrate should have dismissed the case because the all im....

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....on 342, Criminal Procedure Code. That is a case exactly in point and I think on that ground this criminal revision case should succeed. It is quite clear that at the close of the evidence for the prosecution proof of "scienter" was lacking, an essential ingredient and the accused should have been discharged. Instead as in Mohideen Abdul Kadir v. Emperor I.L.R. (1903) 27 Mad. 238, the evidence was ....

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....judges after distinguishing between admissions of fact and confessions of guilt go on to say: In fact a useful test as to the admissibility of statements made to the police is to ascertain the purpose to which they are put by the prosecution. If the prosecution rely on the statements of the accused to the police as being true, then they may, and probably in many cases will, be found to am....