by Alok Mohit
PATNA: The Patna High Court has said that the police accountability should be made stricter and there must be a proper action for lapses, if any.
A division bench of Justice Ashwani Kumar Singh and Justice Shailendra Singh, which passed the order recently, also expressed concern over “faulty investigations”, stating that such lapses were leading to acquittals and justice was becoming a casualty.
“We must keep in mind that it is not severity but the certainty of punishment that deters people from committing crimes. Conviction of a criminal is the ultimate test of a justice system. If after years of investigations and trials the guilty are let off, it is not just a waste of time and energy but also corrodes the faith of the common man in the criminal justice system,” the bench said while hearing a public interest litigation (PIL) petition.
Petitioner Om Prakash Kumar, an advocate, submitted that in the era of digitisation/computerisation, the Bihar Police were using the outdated system of maintaining the records in manual form which adversely affected the administration of criminal justice. He contended that the case diary was an important piece of document wherein day to day proceedings of investigation was maintained by the investigating officers. As it was being maintained in handwritten form by Bihar police officers, it had been noticed many a times that case diaries were not legible and caused difficulty in the administration of justice. He said that states like Punjab and Haryana had adopted a system which required the maintenance of case diary in a digital form.
While disposing the petition, the bench issued some guidelines which it deemed “fit and proper” for making improvements in the state of investigation process.
The bench said for ensuring that the criminal investigation by the police into a crime was in consonance with the settled procedure, a rule book of guidelines/instructions might be issued to the police with a direction for its strict compliance in every investigation.
It said the police accountability had to be made stricter and there must be proper action for any lapse.
Inordinate delay in visiting the crime scene should be avoided and reconstruction of crime scene should be done immediately after registration of the FIR, thee bench said and added that intensive and practical training should be regularly imparted to the police personnel in respect of procedures and law.
“An urgent and effective step should be taken for separating law and order unit and investigation units in Mahila (women) Police Station and SC/ST Police Station as separating other duties of the police from investigation will reduce the burden of tasks on a limited number of police officers,” the bench said.
The judges also felt that the state might consider appointing a legal officer to assist the police during investigation as the assistance of a legal officer would immensely benefit the police officer to know the intricacies of law in evidence.
“The investigating officers should be sensitised about their role especially in producing witnesses during trial. The investigating officer should mandatorily prepare sketch map of the place of occurrence in heinous crime cases, the judges added.
The court said an arrangement should be made so that FSL experts might inspect the place of occurrence in heinous crime cases and submit their place of occurrence report, which would include sketch map pointing the location of important places and exhibits like fire arm, cartridge, bullet, bullet’s mark, seminal/blood stains, saliva, etc.
“An endeavour should be made to streamline the process of recording the scene of crime and collection and package of exhibits. The investigating officer should also be imparted training on various topics related to proper lifting and packaging of exhibits from the place of occurrence as well as on various aspects of rerecording scene of crime through photography/videography and, thereafter, preparation of sketch map,” the bench added.
An exclusive workshop for field officers for crime scene photography and videography should be organized on regular interval, the bench said.
Amazon Brand – House & Shields Men’s Regular T-Shirt
