POs evading arrest: HC asks Punjab, Haryana, UT DGPs to constitute monitoring committees
The high court bench of justice HS Brar also issued a slew of directions to police and trial courts to take steps so that these offenders are not able to evade the process of law for years together.
Taking serious note of a large number of proclaimed offenders escaping the law for years together, the Punjab and Haryana high court has directed the police chiefs of Punjab, Haryana and Chandigarh to constitute a state-level supervisory committees headed by the additional director general of police (law and order) to monitor the cases of escapees and issue necessary directions from time to time for bringing them to the process of justice.
The high court bench of justice HS Brar also issued a slew of directions to police and trial courts to take steps so that these offenders are not able to evade the process of law for years together.
The directions were issued as it came to light that under Amritsar police commissionerate, one of many such units, property attachment proceedings were initiated in just one case since 2008 even as only 974 proclaimed offenders were arrested out of a total of 2,823.
“The attachment of property under section 83 CrPC is a significant component of criminal justice administration, which allows jurisdictional police authorities to ensure the presence of the accused during the legal process. The primary purpose of attachment of property is to prevent the accused from absconding or evading the process of law. It is a critical tool to ensure the presence of the accused during trial and also relevant in cases where the accused has been found guilty and he has been ordered to pay a fine or compensation to the victim,” the bench of justice HS Brar observed.
Now, the high court has directed that the concerned senior superintendent of police would forward an action taken report on a quarterly basis to the ADGP (law and order) and the investigating officer or the Station House Office (SHO) must obtain at least two of the documents from the accused at the time of the arrest. The list includes passport, PAN card copy, bank passbook, credit card with photograph, ration card, electricity bill, landline telephone bill, voter ID card, property tax register and Aadhaar card.
The trial courts have been directed to ensure that these guidelines are complied with by police when an accused is produced before the court. The concerned magistrate/trial judge is duty bound to supervise proper issuance and service of summons/warrants/proclamation, it further added directing that proceedings should not be closed after the declaration of an accused as a proclaimed offender and rather, the trial courts would issue directions to the police to take steps for arrest and seek status reports from time to time.
It has also been directed that after declaring a PO, the court would ask the police to trace and identify his movable and immovable properties and file a status report with respect to his assets. Thereafter, the court would proceed to attach properties as identified, it said adding that the trial court would also monitor action taken by the police.
The court observed that where the accused is not residing in India, his proclamation must be effected abroad through the Indian Embassy situated in the country of his residence. The court also directed the high court registry to send a copy of the order to DGPs and all the district courts of two states and Chandigarh.