Karnataka High Court Quashes Case Against Accused 2 in Constable Exam Device Case, Following Relief to Co-Accused

The petitioner, accused No. 2, sought to quash proceedings in C.C. No. 47/2022 for offences under Sections 120(B) and 420 IPC.

The case arose from an allegation that accused No. 1 used an electronic device during a police constable examination; the petitioner was implicated in the alleged supply of such devices.

The Court noted that coordinate Benches had quashed proceedings against other accused on the ground that the allegations rested on statements of co-accused and lacked corroborative material.

The petitioner sought the same relief.

The Court referred to Section 114, illustration (b), of the Evidence Act, under which an accomplice’s evidence is treated as unworthy of credit unless corroborated in material particulars, and to Section 25 of the Evidence Act concerning the inadmissibility of a confession made to a police officer, as discussed in the earlier coordinate Bench orders.

Those orders held that proceedings could not be sustained where the accused had been implicated solely by co-accused statements and no recovery or corroborative material supported the allegation.

The present Court applied those coordinate Bench decisions to the petitioner’s case.

The Court found that the petitioner, like the other accused whose proceedings had been quashed, had been brought into the case on the basis of a co-accused’s voluntary statement.

In light of the earlier decisions holding that such implication, without corroborative material, did not justify continuation of the proceedings, the Court concluded that the petitioner was entitled to the same relief.

The Court clarified that the benefit of quashing did not extend to any other accused, particularly accused No. 1, against whom proceedings had not been quashed.