High CourtsDivision Bench

Queen-Empress vs Muppan

Madras High Court · Decided on 23 July 1895 · Citation: (1895) ILR (Mad) 401

HON’BLE JUDGES
Subramania Ayyar, J · Shephard, J
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Judgment

8 paragraphs · 176 words
1.

We think the accused was rightly convicted. The custody of a prisoner does not necessarily come to an end because the custodian absents

himself for a few minutes. A man legally arrested for an offence must submit to be tried and dealt with according to law. If he gains his liberty

before he is delivered by due course of law, he commits the offence of ''escape.'' It has been long established that even when the escape is effected

by the consent or the neglect of the person that kept the prisoner in custody, the latter is no less guilty, as neither such illegal consent nor neglect

absolves the prisoner from the duty of submitting to the judgment of the law (I Russ., 5th edition, p. 567, Roscoe, 11th edition, p. 453, and

Bishop''s Criminal Law, 7th edition, Section 1104). Consequently in the present case the neglect of the police officer in absenting himself from the

place where the accused was detained when he escaped does not affect the accused''s guilt.

2.

We decline to interfere.