New Delhi, July 20: Suggesting radical changes to
deal with acquittals due to witnesses turning hostile, the
centre is seriously considering a law ministry proposal to
amend the law to make recording of statement of accused and
witnesses by a magistrate mandatory in heinous crimes.
Proposing insertion of a new section 164 A in the Criminal
Procedure Code, Law Minister Arun Jaitley recently gave a
presentation to Home Minister L K Advani about the proposal
making it almost impossible for the witness or the accused to
resile from his statement made during the investigation,
official sources said.
As per the proposal, the police officer investigating any
offence punishable with death penalty or imprisonment of seven
years or more has to produce "all persons whose statement
appears to him to be material and essential for investigation
of the case, to the nearest magistrate, for recording of their
statement."
The magistrate would record the statement of the witness,
of the accused after ascertaining whether the same was being
given under threat or made voluntarily, the proposal said.
After recording of the statement, the magistrate would
forward it to the magistrate who was presiding over the trial
of the case.
Suggesting another radical change in the criminal law,
the proposal suggested insertion of a new chapter in the
Criminal Procedure Code on plea bargaining, in which
the accused, after compensating the victim or the complainant,
could bargain for a punishment lesser than what is provided
under the statute.
However, the well-thought about proposal restricted
application of plea bargaining to cases not involving crimes
for which punishment was either death penalty or life
imprisonment thus ruling out employing of this plea to
heinous offences.
The proposal intended to keep out corruption and
white-collar crimes and abuse of women and children out of the
purview of plea bargaining by specifying that it would not
apply to offences affecting the socio-economic conditions of
the country or those been committed against a woman or a child
below 14 years of age.
Bureau Report
