This is the crucial issu~ and that is that the defendant was among
!hose _who took part in the robbery or stealing . In proving this
in~red1ent of the offence of robbery, the P.W .1 whose relevant
evidence has been highlighted above made it clear that she did
not observe any, of the robbers . It was only the P.W.3 that stated in
his evidence that the defendant was amongst the people that
came and robbed their bank. When he was being cross examined
he told the Court that he came to the police station and identified
the defendant o:n .the day of the robbery. By the evidence of the
P.W .3 he has fixed the defendant at the locus criminis and if his
evidence is ac.cepted and believed, then he is one of the
perpetrators of the crime. The learned counsel for the defendant in
his written address had argued that the P.W.3's evidence of
identification of th_e ·defendant cannot be believed because from
the exhibits befo:re the Court there is no such evidence of
identification. He referred to the concluding portion of the
statement of the! P.W.3 and argued that what is contained there is
that "if he sees the robbers he can recognise them" and not that
he identified one of them . It is argued also that the evidence of
identification is weak not having been tested in an identification
parade. I think thisr,where the learned counsel for the defendant
got it wrong as contended by the prosecuting counsel. Having not
tendered the statement of the P.W.3 as an exhibit, there is nothing
to be compared with his testimony in Court. Apart from this , it was
the learned counsel for the defendant that cross examined the
P.W.3 to adduce !the evidence he is now attacking.
The evidence of the P.W.3 as the security man at the bank, Exhibit
"C" and the circumstantial evidence from the P.W.1 and P.W.2 that
part of the money stolen was recovered from the defendant when
he was arrested :are the evidence tendered by the prosecution in
proof of the offence of commission of robbery or stealing . The
question that is relevant to ask at this point is whether the
defendant can be convicted on the basis of his confessional
statement which is Exhibit "C" in view of the fact that he retracted
his extra judicial statement in his testimony in Court? The law is
now firmly established as rightly submitted by the learned counsel
for the parties that where a defendant confesses to a crime in his
extra judicial statement to the police but in court, he retracts from
his confession, prudence and the well laid down practice is that
before such a defendant is convicted on the said confessional
statement the court looks for some evidence outside the
confession which would make the confession probable.
I
.
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