{"id":392442,"date":"2026-08-05T15:30:52","date_gmt":"2026-08-05T10:00:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.scconline.com\/blog\/?p=392442"},"modified":"2026-08-05T15:41:58","modified_gmt":"2026-08-05T10:11:58","slug":"section-299-crpc-interpretation-evidence-co-accused-trial-absconding-accused","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.scconline.com\/blog\/post\/2026\/08\/05\/section-299-crpc-interpretation-evidence-co-accused-trial-absconding-accused\/","title":{"rendered":"When a Co-Accused\u2019s Trial Evidence Can Be Used Against an Absconding Accused? Supreme Court Interprets Section 299 CrPC"},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"text-align: justify; line-height: 150%;\">\n<p style=\"margin-bottom: 3%;\"><span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Supreme Court:<\/span> In an appeal challenging the conviction which was based on testimony of deceased witness recorded during a separate trial of co-accused while he was evading prosecution, <span style=\"color: #0e101a;\">the Division Bench of J.B. Pardiwala and<span style=\"font-weight: bold;\"> K. Vinod Chandran<span style=\"vertical-align: super;\">*<\/span><\/span>, JJ.<\/span>, held that only an order passed, finding proof of both the jurisdictional facts, i.e., one that the accused is absconding and the other that there is no immediate prospect of arresting him, would enable testimony of the witness recorded at that stage to be relied on at a later stage. Accordingly, the Court acquitted the accused for lack of an order under Section <a href=\"https:\/\/www.scconline.com\/DocumentLink.aspx?q=JTXT-0001519572\" target=\"_blank\">299<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.scconline.com\/DocumentLink.aspx?q=JTXT-0002726935\" target=\"_blank\">Criminal Procedure Code, 1973<\/a> (CrPC). The appeal was allowed.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Question before the Court<\/p>\n<p style=\"margin-bottom: 3%;\">The question before the Court was whether evidence recorded in a trial against one of the accused; the case against the absconding accused having been split up, can be used against that accused when he is arrested later and a fresh trial is conducted.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Discussion on Section 299 CrPC<\/p>\n<p style=\"margin-bottom: 3%;\">The Court observed that the issue was no longer <span style=\"font-style: italic;\">res integra<\/span> and proceeded to examine the decisions interpreting Section <a href=\"https:\/\/www.scconline.com\/DocumentLink.aspx?q=JTXT-0001519572\" target=\"_blank\">299<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.scconline.com\/DocumentLink.aspx?q=JTXT-0002726935\" target=\"_blank\">CrPC<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p style=\"margin-bottom: 3%;\">The Court first referred <span style=\"font-style: italic;\">to Nirmal Singh v. State of Haryana<\/span>, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.scconline.com\/DocumentLink\/Z237143r\" target=\"_blank\">(2000) 4 SCC 41<\/a>, where 2 accused had absconded and the Magistrate recorded the statements of 27 witnesses under Section <a href=\"https:\/\/www.scconline.com\/DocumentLink.aspx?q=JTXT-0001519572\" target=\"_blank\">299<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.scconline.com\/DocumentLink.aspx?q=JTXT-0002726935\" target=\"_blank\">CrPC<\/a>. After the accused were apprehended, the testimony of 5 of those witnesses was relied upon to convict them. The Court noted that in <span style=\"font-style: italic;\">Nirmal Singh<\/span>, Section 299 was explained as comprising 2 parts. The first deals with the circumstances in which evidence may be recorded in the absence of an accused, while the second concerns the circumstances in which such evidence may be used in a subsequent trial without affording the accused an opportunity of cross-examination. The Court further noted that <span style=\"font-style: italic;\">Nirmal Singh<\/span> held that before recording evidence under Section 299, the Court must be satisfied that the accused had absconded and that there was no immediate prospect of arresting him. The Court also noted that Section 299 was held to be an exception to Section <a href=\"https:\/\/www.scconline.com\/DocumentLink.aspx?q=JTXT-0001516775\" target=\"_blank\">33<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.scconline.com\/DocumentLink.aspx?q=JTXT-0002726934\" target=\"_blank\">Evidence Act, 1872<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p style=\"margin-bottom: 3%;\">The Court further noted that, in <span style=\"font-style: italic;\">Nirmal Singh<\/span>, although the Sessions Judge had not expressly recorded satisfaction regarding the second part of Section 299, the High Court found from the original records that repeated summons issued to the 5 witnesses had been returned with reports that they had died. The Supreme Court, therefore, upheld the use of their earlier testimony.<\/p>\n<p style=\"margin-bottom: 3%;\">The Court next referred to <span style=\"font-style: italic;\">Jayendra Vishnu Thakur v. State of Maharashtra<\/span>, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.scconline.com\/DocumentLink\/Bx3OVcuT\" target=\"_blank\">(2009) 7 SCC 104<\/a>, which dealt with the jurisdictional facts contemplated under Section <a href=\"https:\/\/www.scconline.com\/DocumentLink.aspx?q=JTXT-0001519572\" target=\"_blank\">299<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.scconline.com\/DocumentLink.aspx?q=JTXT-0002726935\" target=\"_blank\">CrPC<\/a>. The Court noted that, in that case, evidence was directed to be recorded under Section 299 despite the investigating officer having informed the Designated Court that one of the absconding accused had already been arrested. Referring to the observations in <span style=\"font-style: italic;\">Jayendra Vishnu Thakur<\/span>, the Court noted that Section 299 requires proof of 2 jurisdictional facts: <span style=\"font-style: italic;\">first<\/span>, that the accused is absconding; and <span style=\"font-style: italic;\">second<\/span>, that there is no immediate prospect of arresting him. The Court also noted that <span style=\"font-style: italic;\">Jayendra Vishnu Thakur<\/span> emphasised that both conditions must be read conjunctively and that the Court must arrive at a categorical finding on the basis of cogent evidence before exercising power under Section 299.<\/p>\n<p style=\"margin-bottom: 3%;\">The Court thereafter referred to <span style=\"font-style: italic;\">Sukhpal Singh v. State (NCT of Delhi)<\/span>, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.scconline.com\/DocumentLink\/B98S4sJ0\" target=\"_blank\">2024 SCC OnLine SC 800<\/a>, wherein reliance was placed on both <span style=\"font-style: italic;\">Nirmal Singh<\/span> and <span style=\"font-style: italic;\">Jayendra Vishnu Thakur<\/span>. The Court noted that, in <span style=\"font-style: italic;\">Sukhpal Singh<\/span>, after the accused was declared a proclaimed offender, permission was granted to proceed under Section <a href=\"https:\/\/www.scconline.com\/DocumentLink.aspx?q=JTXT-0001519572\" target=\"_blank\">299<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.scconline.com\/DocumentLink.aspx?q=JTXT-0002726935\" target=\"_blank\">CrPC<\/a> and the complainant&#8217;s testimony recorded under that provision was subsequently relied upon after the accused was apprehended. The Court also noted that <span style=\"font-style: italic;\">Sukhpal Singh<\/span> reiterated that Section 299 requires proof of the 2 jurisdictional facts relating to the accused&#8217;s abscondence and the absence of any immediate prospect of arrest before evidence can be recorded in the accused&#8217;s absence.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: bold;\">Analysis and Findings<\/p>\n<p style=\"margin-bottom: 3%;\">The Court observed that invocation of Section <a href=\"https:\/\/www.scconline.com\/DocumentLink.aspx?q=JTXT-0001519572\" target=\"_blank\">299<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.scconline.com\/DocumentLink.aspx?q=JTXT-0002726935\" target=\"_blank\">CrPC<\/a> is possible only when 2 jurisdictional facts are established: that the accused is absconding and that there is no immediate prospect of arresting him. It observed that proof of these jurisdictional facts gives rise to 2 consequences. The first, <span style=\"font-style: italic;\">in praesenti<\/span>, is that evidence of witnesses may be recorded in the absence of the accused. The second, <span style=\"font-style: italic;\">in futuro<\/span>, is that such testimony may be used at the subsequent trial after the accused is apprehended, provided the Court is satisfied that the witness is dead, incapable of giving evidence, cannot be found, or that securing the witness&#8217;s presence would involve unreasonable delay, expense or inconvenience.<\/p>\n<p style=\"margin-bottom: 3%;\">The Court observed that the object of Section 299 is to ensure that an accused does not frustrate the prosecution by deliberately absconding and jeopardise the criminal justice system. The Court further observed that an accused who deliberately remains absconding cannot claim the benefit of the right of cross-examination under Section <a href=\"https:\/\/www.scconline.com\/DocumentLink.aspx?q=JTXT-0001516775\" target=\"_blank\">33<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.scconline.com\/DocumentLink.aspx?q=JTXT-0002726934\" target=\"_blank\">Evidence Act, 1872<\/a>, as the provision is founded on the principle that no person can claim the benefit of a wrong committed by himself.<\/p>\n<p style=\"margin-bottom: 3%;\">The Court further held that an order under Section 299 must conclusively record satisfaction regarding both jurisdictional facts at the stage when the accused is found absconding, either before committal or during trial, and not after the accused is subsequently apprehended. The Court also explained that where there are multiple accused and one of them absconds, the trial against the remaining accused may proceed after recording satisfaction regarding the jurisdictional facts. In such a case, the testimony recorded during that trial may subsequently be relied upon in the absconding accused&#8217;s trial if the Court finds that the witness cannot be found or produced.<\/p>\n<p style=\"margin-bottom: 3%;\">Applying the above principles, the Court noted that the appellant and another accused were charged with murder. While the co-accused was tried and acquitted, the appellant absconded and was arrested only in 2017. During the appellant&#8217;s trial, PW 1, a crucial eyewitness examined in the earlier trial, had died. Other eyewitnesses either turned hostile or failed to identify the appellant. The trial court and the High Court, therefore, relied upon PW 1&#8217;s testimony recorded in the earlier proceedings.<\/p>\n<p style=\"margin-bottom: 3%;\">The Court, however, found that no order under Section <a href=\"https:\/\/www.scconline.com\/DocumentLink.aspx?q=JTXT-0001519572\" target=\"_blank\">299<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.scconline.com\/DocumentLink.aspx?q=JTXT-0002726935\" target=\"_blank\">CrPC<\/a> had been passed in 1999 either at the stage of committal or at the commencement of trial. The Court observed that the appellant&#8217;s abscondence and the impossibility of his immediate arrest ought to have been urged before that Court and proved to its satisfaction. The Court held that only an order recording satisfaction regarding both jurisdictional facts would enable the testimony recorded at that stage to be relied upon subsequently when the witness was no longer available.<\/p>\n<p style=\"margin-bottom: 3%;\">Since no such order had been passed in the earlier trial, the Court held that the prosecution failed against the appellant. Accordingly, the Court acquitted the appellant of the charges, directed that he be released if in custody, and ordered that, if already released on bail, his bail bonds would stand cancelled. The appeal was allowed.<\/p>\n<p style=\"margin-bottom: 3%;\">[<span style=\"font-weight: bold; color: #632423;\"><span style=\"font-style: italic;\">Mahendra Singh<\/span> v. <span style=\"font-style: italic;\">State of Chhattisgarh<\/span>, Criminal Appeal No. 3566 of 2026, decided on 31-7-2026<\/span>]<\/p>\n<p style=\"margin-bottom: 3%; text-indent: 18pt; border: 2px solid black; border-radius: 10px; text-align: center; width: 50%; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; background-color: #DCDCDC;\"><strong><span style=\"color: #000080;\">*Judgment authored by Justice K. Vinod Chandran.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<hr\/>\n<p>Advocates who appeared in this case:<\/p>\n<p style=\"margin-left: 18pt;\"><span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">For the petitioner:<\/span> AOR Jayesh K. Unnikrishnan with Sasmita Tripathy, Ashish Kumar Rai, Ayush Baliarsingh, Somesh Sankhala, Advocates<\/p>\n<p style=\"margin-left: 18pt;\"><span style=\"font-weight: bold;\">For the respondent:<\/span> AOR Siddhartha Sinha with Abhishek Pandey, Advocate<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p style=\"font-style: italic;\">The Court examined the scope of Section 299 CrPC in a case involving an absconding accused, evidence recorded during a co-accused&#8217;s trial, and its subsequent use after the accused&#8217;s arrest.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":67011,"featured_media":392450,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,9],"tags":[50243,26714,18591,2557,11941,2521,6252,111562,49365,70060,44430,5363],"class_list":["post-392442","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-casebriefs","category-supremecourt","tag-absconding-accused","tag-co-accused","tag-code-of-criminal-procedure","tag-Criminal_Trial","tag-crpc","tag-Evidence","tag-evidence-act","tag-interpretation-of-section-299-crpc","tag-justice-j-b-pardiwala","tag-justice-k-vinod-chandran","tag-section-299-crpc","tag-supreme-court"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v28.0 (Yoast SEO v28.0) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Section 299 CrPC interpretation: Can evidence from co-accused&#039;s case be used during absconding accused&#039;s trial? | SCC Times<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The Supreme Court interpreted Section 299 CrPC while examining whether evidence recorded during a co-accused&#039;s trial can be used against an absconding accused arrested later, and explained the statutory requirements for invoking the provision.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.scconline.com\/blog\/post\/2026\/08\/05\/section-299-crpc-interpretation-evidence-co-accused-trial-absconding-accused\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"When a Co-Accused\u2019s Trial Evidence Can Be Used Against an Absconding Accused? Supreme Court Interprets Section 299 CrPC\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The Supreme Court interpreted Section 299 CrPC while examining whether evidence recorded during a co-accused&#039;s trial can be used against an absconding accused arrested later, and explained the statutory requirements for invoking the provision.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.scconline.com\/blog\/post\/2026\/08\/05\/section-299-crpc-interpretation-evidence-co-accused-trial-absconding-accused\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"SCC Times\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/scc.online\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-08-05T10:00:52+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-08-05T10:11:58+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.scconline.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Section-299-CrPC-interpretation.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"886\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"590\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Editor\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:title\" content=\"When a Co-Accused\u2019s Trial Evidence Can Be Used Against an Absconding Accused? 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Supreme Court Interprets Section 299 CrPC","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Editor","Est. reading time":"6 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https:\/\/www.scconline.com\/blog\/post\/2026\/08\/05\/section-299-crpc-interpretation-evidence-co-accused-trial-absconding-accused\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.scconline.com\/blog\/post\/2026\/08\/05\/section-299-crpc-interpretation-evidence-co-accused-trial-absconding-accused\/"},"author":{"name":"Editor","@id":"https:\/\/www.scconline.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/84e42bab48238baf12c7e33b3d9761fe"},"headline":"When a Co-Accused\u2019s Trial Evidence Can Be Used Against an Absconding Accused? 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