The Supreme Court (SC) in two appeals challenging the order of the Karnataka High Court (HC), convicting an accused by primarily relying on the testimony of a journalist who had interviewed the accused inside the jail premises, held that a newspaper report pertaining to an extra judicial confession cannot be said to be more credible just because it was made open to the public at large. The SC further noted that a newspaper report is only hearsay evidence and it can only be treated as secondary evidence under the Indian Evidence Act, 1872.
