Probe goes downhill in Pindi police stations
The performance of the police investigation teams of 34 police stations in the Rawalpindi district has been continuously degraded and disappointing.
Sources said the investigation system has become disastrous due to poor strategy, continuous duties of police officers and running behind the political activists of different political parties.
The investigation teams of police stations of Rawalpindi district have not yet been able to present the complete challans of the cases registered in 2021 and 2022 in the courts, the criminals of which have taken advantage and disappeared after getting their bails from the courts.
According to sources, the investigation teams could not submit complete challans of 19,901 cases in the courts pertaining to the years 2021, 2022 and for the first two months of the current year.
Further, the challans of 605 serious cases of the year 2021 have not yet been submitted in the courts, the sources said and added that even the challans of 7,568 cases registered in 2022 could not be presented in the court.
They said the police failed to present 1,817 challans of the cases registered in the first month of 2023, while the challans of 9,911 cases registered in February 2023 could not be presented in the courts.
Investigation teams and officers scored their points by only presenting challans pertaining to minor cases of alcohol consumption, selling of bottles of liquor, gambling, peddling, vagrancy, kite flying, brawls, cattle theft, bicycle and motorcycle theft, pickpocketing, minor drug cases, to their high-ups while they deliberately delayed presenting the challans of serious crimes like gang rape, murder, robbery, kidnapping and kidnapping for rape cases with the connivance of the accused.
Sources said that due to non-submission of challans, the accused in all serious cases escape the clutches of law and become fugitives after getting bail from the courts.
The SSP Investigation also seems to be completely helpless in making the system transparent for timely submission of challans of serious cases to the courts.
The challans of 2,311 cases are yet to be submitted by the Sadiqabad police, 2,231 by the New Town police, 1,368 by the Civil Lines police, 1,084 from the Saddar Beroni police and 1,005 from the Airport police. Interestingly, the Women Police Station has no pending challan as the female investigation officers perform better than male police investigation officers, the sources claimed.
Criminal law expert, Advocate Masood Shah, says that according to the law, the police are obliged to present the challan within 14 days, but to benefit the accused, they delay presenting the complete challan in the court or present incomplete challans at intervals to spoil the trial.
Advocate Zeb Fayyaz said that it is difficult to present a challan in 14 days. “The period should be extended to 30 days and IOs should be provided with complete stationery and transport expenses for forensic lab tests and vehicle for arresting the accused,” she suggested.
“Forensic labs should be set up in every division for prompt forensic reports. After that, if any IO delays the challan, strict departmental action should be taken against them and they should be removed from the police investigation,” she maintained.
Meanwhile, a senior IO admitted that the delay in challans in many serious cases was deliberate but there were also major problems in the process. “It is not possible to submit challan for serious cases within 14 days,” he said and claimed that the forensics and DNA reports are received after two or three months. “How can the challan be completed in two weeks?” he questioned.
He added said that they were not provided with stationery and transport facilities. “We are being forced to catch the accused at our expense,” he lamented and added that the IOs had to go to the Lahore Forensic Science Laboratory at their own expense. “We can present the challan in one month if provided with all the facilities,” he said.
On the other hand, Rawalpindi Bar Association President Faisal Khan Niazi said that lawyers would not mind if complete challans of serious cases were presented in three to four months, however, not presenting the challans of the cases for the years 2021 and 2022 to date was an injustice to the affected party.
“Suspects in serious cases are always ready to offer huge bribes to delay submission of the challan,” he said and demanded that the interior minister should take action against those responsible for submitting incomplete challans by seeking a list of all such cases.
He said the Punjab IGP, CPO and SP Investigation should also take strict notice of the inordinate delay. “If the challans of serious cases are presented to the courts in time, a lot of cases may be decided within a year,” he said.
Published in The Express Tribune, March 16th, 2023.