Madras HC: Standard of probe by cops has come down drastically

Chennai: Pointing out that the standard of investigation by the police has drastically come down and it will be evident from the number of acquittals that is happening in serious offences, the Madras high court has called for details from the DGP, with regard to the cases that are registered by the police, final report filed in those cases, trial conducted in those cases and the result of such cases.

Justice N.Anand Venkatesh said, “The details sought for attached as annexure, is directed to be sent to the DGP, who, in turn will get the entire particulars from each district and submit it before this court within 4 weeks. The details will clearly bring to light the manner in which the entire criminal justice system is operating in this state”.

Granting conditional bail to two accused in a robbery case, in which the de-facto complainant could not identify the accused during trial since the prosecution failed to conduct an identification parade, the judge said even in this case, the police has not taken any steps to conduct identification parade and therefore, the whole exercise of conducting trial has now become pointless. This court was made to believe based on the allegations made in the complaint that the case involves a grave offence. However, it now comes to light that not a single accused person has been identified by the witnesses before the court. “There are very many cases where the case of the prosecution is becoming pointless due to the non identification of the accused persons in the court and the failure of the prosecution to conduct identification parade. These cases only strengthen the apprehension raised by this court regarding the cases being registered by the police for the purpose of statistics”, the judge added.

The judge said this court gives an opportunity for this court to call for details, with regard to the cases that were registered by the police, final report filed in those cases, trial conducted in those cases and the result of such cases.

“The intention of this court is not to find fault with the manner in which the Criminal Justice system is working in this State. This court only wants to find some solution, going forward. The standard of investigation by the police has drastically come down and it will be evident from the number of acquittals that is happening in serious offences. If this is the situation faced, while investigating the conventional offences of murder, theft, cheating etc., this court is afraid as to how the police are going to handle Cyber Crimes which has increased leaps and bounds and which requires a lot of specialization and expertise for the purpose of investigation. This court is going to keep this petition pending for the purpose of getting the details from the DGP and thereafter, an attempt can be made to evolve a process to improve the prevailing situation and try to bring about a change in the attitude of the police managing the criminal justice system”, the judge added and posted the case after six weeks for reporting compliance.