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Mohammed Fasrin v. State rep. by the Intelligence Officer

Criminal Appeal · 2019 INSC 999Decided 4 Sept 2019
Criminal Appeal No. 296 of 2014
Justice Deepak Gupta · Justice Aniruddha Bose

Background

Acting on a tip-off, Narcotics officers intercepted a car in Madurai in 2003 and recovered 7.4 kg of heroin; several occupants, including a co-accused, were convicted. The appellant, Mohammed Fasrin, was not in the car but was convicted under the NDPS Act for financing and for offences linked to the smuggling, based mainly on the co-accused's statement and his own confession recorded in custody, and was sentenced to 15 years' rigorous imprisonment. Both the trial court and the Madras High Court had upheld his conviction.

Decision Breakdown

The Supreme Court found that the only evidence against the appellant was a co-accused's hearsay account of what an unnamed third party had allegedly said, plus the appellant's own custodial confession, with the key intermediaries named in that chain never examined or even charged. The Court held that a co-accused's confession is weak evidence requiring independent corroboration, which was absent here, and that even assuming the appellant's confession was admissible (a question it left open given a related reference pending before a larger bench in Tofan Singh), there was no proof it was voluntary or that his rights were explained to him. Concluding the evidence fell well short of what was needed to sustain a conviction, the Court set aside the judgments of both the trial court and the High Court, allowed the appeal, and ordered the appellant's bail bonds discharged.

Lesson Learnt

A criminal conviction cannot rest on an uncorroborated co-accused's statement or a bare custodial confession alone: the prosecution must produce independent, reliable evidence linking the accused to the offence, especially when key intermediaries in the alleged chain of events are never examined.

Official source (sci.gov.in)View Judgment (PDF)

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