Copy of statement of witness furnished to accused-Material omission in it as compared to statement made u/s161 crpc-Defence is entitled to bring them on record and rely upon same.
In his examination-in-chief the Investigating Officer (P.W.19 ) brought to the notice of the Court the original statement of P.W.3 as recorded by him (Ex.P.47) wherein there was no such omissions to which the attention of the witness was brought in course of his cross-examination (referred to earlier). In cross-examination, however, he admitted that in the copy that was forwarded to the accused there were Those omissions. If the above evidence of P.W 19 to be believed then it must be said that there is no basis for the contention of Mr, Madhava Reddy that P.W.3's evidence in Court should not be believed regarding the actual roles played by A2 to A6 in the murder of D2 in view of his failure to mention about it in his earlier version, but if the copy of the statement of P.W.3 as furnished to the accused is the correct one then the defence was legitimately entitled to bring those material omissions on record and rely upon the same. Mr. Madhava Reddy, however strongly urged that Ex.P.47 was subsequently created to fill in the lacuna of the prosecution case.
