Amendment status not verified — confirm the current text below against the official source.
Confessional statement by person while not an accused and not in police custody cannot be proved against him when he is subsequently accused of offence. - The confessional statement which is being considered in Section 27, is a statement which is made by a person in police custody. It is also a person "accused of an offence". If these two phrases are considered together, it follows inevitably that the person when he made the statement, was an accused person and he was also in police custody. To place any other interpretation upon the working of Section 27, would be to do violence not only to its spirit but also to its language and, therefore, it is quite clear that only those confessional statements are being considered under Section 27 which are made by accused persons while they are in police custody. Such confessional statements are admissible in evidence provided they have led to the discovery of a fresh fact. If the statement is made by a person who is a stranger or is a prosecution witness, then such statement is not admissible in evidence despite the fact that it amounts to a confession and does lead to the discovery of a new fact. In this case, the accused was a peon of the Corporation of Delhi. He had been entrusted with a sum of money to be deposited in the Zonal Office at. He reported that he had been robbed and that the money was lost. The police began an investigation of the alleged case of robbery. He then told the police that he had kept the money with a friend. The police recovered the money from the friend. It was held that the accused's statement was not admissible in evidence in the prosecution against him, as at the time when he made the statement he was neither an accused person no in police custody.