A, a police officer tortures Z in order to induce Z to confess that he has committed a crime. What offence does A commit?

Question: A, a police officer tortures Z in order to induce Z to confess that he has committed a crime. What offence does A commit? [RJS 1986]

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Answer:

Section 330 provides punishment for voluntarily causing hurt to extort confession or to compel restoration of property. It states,

Whoever voluntarily causes hurt for the purposes of extorting from the sufferer or from any person interested in the sufferer, any confession or any information which may lead to the detection of an offence or misconduct, or

for the purpose of constraining the sufferer or any person interested in the sufferer to restore or to cause the restoration of any property or valuable security or to satisfy any claim or demand, or to give information which may lead to the restoration of any property or valuable security,

shall be punished with imprisonment of either description for a term which may extend to seven years, and shall also be liable to fine.

Illustration (a) to the section: A, a police officer, tortures Z in order to induce Z to confess that he committed a crime. A is guilty of an offence under this section.

Further, Section 331 deals with Voluntarily causing grievous hurt to extort confession or to compel restoration of property.

Whoever voluntarily causes grievous hurt for the purpose of extorting from the sufferer or from any person interested in the sufferer any confession or any information which may lead to the detection of an offence or misconduct,

or for the purpose of constraining the sufferer or any person interested in the sufferer to restore or to cause the restoration of any property or valuable security, or to satisfy any claim or demand, or to give information which may lead to the restoration of any property or valuable security,

shall be punished with imprisonment of either description for a term which may extend to ten years, and shall be liable to fine.

The essential ingredients of these sections are:

1. the offender should voluntarily cause hurt or grievous hurt;
2. it should be done for the purpose of:
   • to extort confession or information,
   • to restore or cause restoration of any property or valuable security,
   • to satisfy any claim or demand, or
   • to obtain information, which may lead to the restoration of any property or valuable security;
3. if it is for the purpose of extorting confession or information, such confession or information should lead to the detection of an offence or misconduct.

The punishment provided for voluntarily causing hurt or grievous hurt under Section 330 and Section 331 is simple or rigorous imprisonment for a term up to seven and ten years and a fine respectively.

In Public Prosecutor v. Ranniappa [AIR 1955 Mad 424] a boy was accused of theft. In order to extort a confession from him that he committed the theft, his hands were tied together, wrapped with a cloth and kerosene oil poured over it and a fire was lit. The accused was found guilty under this section and a sentence of one year’s rigorous imprisonment was imposed.

In another case Public Prosecutor v. Sheikh Ibrahim [AIR 1964 AP 548] an investigation officer, investigating a case of housebreaking and theft, called an ex-convict and tied up his wrists with cloth, hung him up by wrists to a peg driven into the wall and tortured him whilst so suspended, to extract a confession or information from him regarding the offences under investigation.

The ex-convict died because of the torture. Later on, the police officer, with the help of his colleagues, threw the dead body in the nearby well, subsequently removed it from the well and buried it in a place very far away from the police station.

The Andhra Pradesh High Court, holding the torture a crude, barbarous and reprehensible method of investigation, held him guilty under Section 330 of the IPC.

Any third-degree treatment given by police to extort confession falls within the ambit of Section 330. It is not the duty of a police officer to beat a person at the police station to extort confession.

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