Legal provisions regarding power to interrogate witnesses and to record their statements under section 161 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973.
(1) Any police officer making an investigation under this Chapter, or any police officer not below such rank as the State Government may, by general or special order, prescribe in this behalf, acting on the requisition of such officer, may examine orally any person supposed to be acquainted with the facts and circumstances of the case.
ADVERTISEMENTS:
(2) Such person shall be bound to answer truly all questions relating to such case put to him by such officer, other than questions the answers to which would have a tendency to expose him to a criminal charge or to a penalty or forfeiture.
(3) The police officer may reduce into writing any statement made to him in the course of an examination under this Section, and if he does so, he shall make a separate and true record of the statement of each such person whose statement he records.
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If a person, who is legally bound to answer truly all questions relating to a case, refuses to answer any question demanded of him, he is liable to be punished under Section 179 of the Indian Penal Code. Further, if such a person gives a false answer, he is liable to be punished under Section 193 of the Indian Penal Code.
‘Any person supposed to be acquainted with the facts and circumstances of the case’ in Section 161(1) of the Code includes an accused person. Such an accused person has been given protection both by Section 161(2) of the Code and Article 20(3) of the Constitution against questions the answers to which would have a tendency to expose him to a criminal charge. The accused person may remain silent or may refuse to answer when confronted with incriminating questions.
ADVERTISEMENTS:
Statement recorded under Section 161 of the Code shall not be used for any purpose except to contradict the witness in the manner prescribed in the proviso to section 162(1) of the Code.
Statement made by a witness to a police officer under Section 161 of the Code during an investigation may be reduced to writing.
According to Section 162(1) of the Code, no statement made by any person, i.e., witness to a police officer in the course of an investigation under this Chapter shall, if reduced to writing, be signed by the person making it, nor shall any such statement or any record thereof, whether in a police diary or otherwise, or any part of such statement or record, be used for any purpose, save as hereinafter provided, at any inquiry or trial in respect of any offence under investigation at the time when such statement was made. This provision is intended as a statutory safeguard against improper police practices.
In order to ensure that the statements made to the police during invertigation are not affected by fear or favour, Section 163 of the Code of Criminal Procedure provides that no police officer or other person in authority shall offer or make, or cause to be offered or made, any such inducement, threat or promise as is mentioned in Section 24 of the Indian Evidence Act, 1872. It has also been provided that no police officer or other person shall prevent, by any caution or otherwise, any person from making in the course of any investigation under this Chapter any statement which he may be disposed to make of his own free will.
ADVERTISEMENTS:
It was held by the Supreme Court that test identification parade is part of investigation proceedings governed by Section 162, Cr. PC. But holding of test identification parade is not obligatory. Failure to hold such parade would not make inadmissible evidence of identification in Court.