Police performance hits rock bottom

Rawalpindi’s senior sleuths seek overhaul of investigation wing, depoliticisation

RAWALPINDI:

The investigation and detection of cases lodged by the Rawalpindi district police in January this year is touching at its lowest ebb as the investigation wing failed to submit challans in a good number of heinous cases to the courts on time.

According to the law, the police are bound to submit the challan within 14 days, but investigation officers usually take six months to one year to submit a complete challan, thus ‘facilitating’ the accused involved in cases of serious nature.

The performance of investigation teams of 33 police stations across the district has turned out to be very disappointing and poor. Despite repeated announcements and tall claims of police top brass that the police performance improved last month, the investigation police have miserably failed to present the challans of cases in the courts on time.

The IOs even couldn’t arrest a record number of accused in heinous cases. The district police registered a total of 4,531 cases in Jan and presented 1,903 final challans in the courts. 70 per cent of challans submitted in the courts were related to the cases of kite flying, profiteering, gambling, liquor consumption, and petty brawls.

However, the investigation police failed to submit challans in heinous cases of murder, robbery, kidnapping, kidnapping of women, and drug trafficking in the courts. Police nominated 6,718 people in a total of 4,531 cases and arrested only 2,606 accused. Interestingly, the female SSP Investigation terms this performance excellent.

Out of these listed cases, the police failed to trace two cases, and quashed 28 cases as fake, while 54 arrested accused were acquitted and released. The Sadiqabad police registered 475 cases in a month, the Taxila police 427, the New Town police 331, and the Bani police lodged 281 FIRs. The women's police station has yet to register a single case in January.

The situation is so alarming that the accused involved in heinous cases have started fleeing after being granted bail.

Senior investigation officers are of the view that the police teams are continuously failing to arrest the accused and the prevailing investigation system will continue at the cost of police performance until the police are depoliticised and the investigation system is separated from the police.

They further say after increasing of strength, the investigation wing should be spared of arresting political workers, monitoring politicians and going after them. The authorities need to come up with a clear investigation system soon and otherwise, the police investigation will collapse.

Rawalpindi District Bar Association president Intizar Mehdi Shah says the 14-day period for presenting a challan to the court is too short and suggests the law be amended to 30 days. He also called for abolishing the challan system with several witnesses and de novo hearings immediately to avoid delays in judgments of cases.

Retired District and Sessions Judge Shaukat Ali Sajid argues that less number of accused in a case always benefits the complainant, but up to six nominations in a case spoils the case.

Senior criminal lawyer Sabtain Bukhari also suggests increasing the period of submission of challan from 14 days to a month and strict departmental action against the investigator for failing to meet the 30-day deadline. The case should be also taken from the IO as punishment, he suggested.

Advocate Sabtain also suggested introducing the forensic lab system at the divisional level for speedy investigation of cases.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 27^th, 2024.