Sticky procedures

The system of informers the police are reliant upon is stalled

A curious, not to say anomalous, situation has arisen in the law-enforcement agencies in Punjab whereby a holdup in the fixing of rates of reward money for the arrest of what are described as ‘hardened criminals’ has got in the way of their apprehension. The arrest of 63 ‘most wanted criminals’ through the system of informers that the police are reliant upon is stalled because the bounty required by the informants has not been approved by the various agencies that need to give their assent for over a year. A consequence of this, according to official sources, is that the police are unable to ‘woo’ the informants into disclosing what they know, and track has been lost of a number of these admittedly dangerous criminals.

Several questions arise, one being related to the establishment of a system that is so dependent on paid informers that the law-enforcement agencies cannot independently go about the business of arresting criminals and are beholden to the informants — who seemingly have the police and other agencies at their beck and call. Funding that is earmarked for the purpose is reportedly lying unspent in a provincial coffer somewhere, and it is further reported that the police are going to have to re-start their investigations of a number of the yet-to-be arrested 63 all over again — a situation bordering on the criminally negligent.

Considerable time and effort have been spent by the police, the judiciary and prosecutors at district and regional levels in preparation of the list of ‘most wanted’ but to little effect. The ‘most wanted’ have presumably continued their criminal activities unhampered by law enforcement. The public at large remain potential prey for these criminals, and the failure to authorise the money for paying informants has seemingly hamstrung the entire system — a state of affairs that cannot be allowed to continue. An early resolution is required, and we will observe closely.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 3^rd, 2017.

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