Karnataka: Court says confession extracted from illegal custody is 'the fruit of a poisonous tree'

In an intriguing judgement, Justice M Nagaprasanna granted a judgement in favour of the petitioner, Emmanuel Michael, stating that his custody was illegal but also added a caveat that the status of the confession extracted during the illegal custody is left to be decided by the trial courts. 

The Narcotic Control Bureau had confiscated 3,4-Methylenedioxy​methamphetamine also known as MDMA or ecstasy from a woman in December 2020 and the investigations led them to Emmanuel Michael. The police were given a 5-day judicial custody of Emanuel Michael. In May 2021 the police requested for custody of Emmanuel Michael for the second time. It was during the second stint that they obtained a confession from him. Emmanuel Michael challenged his detention in the high court. The high court quashed the trial court order that granted the police with the custody of the victim. It declared that the statements recorded would be treated as statements recorded during illegal custody. But it referred to the statements recorded with regard to this as the “fruits of a poisoned tree”. It cannot be renounced in entirety, the judge said as that would fall outside the purview of the judgement’s scope. It placed the responsibility on Emmanuel Michael to convince the trial court of the invalidity of his confession.