All About the Examination of Witnesses by Police

Abstract

The article deals with Section 161 of the Criminal Procedure Code, 1873 (hereinafter, CrPC), which is the examination of witnesses by police, and its interpretation, such as what is the meaning of any person, what is the extent to which a witness is bound to answer truly, the punishment otherwise he could get, and how this section is connected with Article 20(3) of the Indian Constitution. Further, the project discusses the effect of delay in examining the witnesses on the prosecution version, the discretion which the police has either to record or not to record the statement in writing, the mandate of making a separate and true record of the same if he chooses to reduce it to recording, and the ways of writing a true record of statements. Then, the amendments to this section are mentioned. After this, other aspects of this section, or rather, utilities, are discussed, like whether the record under this section is available
to the accused and other citizens, whether the interpretation of the statement of a police officer or its gist is admissible, what consequences would follow if the statement under Section 161 does not contain the relevant fact, the position of the statement made under this section if the witness who recited it becomes hostile, whether statements under this section were used to contradict the witness in some other case, and whether the re-recording of the statements in a situation when the case has been transferred to another investigating agency is allowed. Each of the topics is supplemented with the relevant provisions in the CrPC, Indian Penal Code, 1860, and Evidence Act, 1872. Examples and case laws have been provided wherever necessary. All the facts have been well substantiated and possess a genuine source, as mentioned in the endnote and the references.