HC orders cops for effective method to arrest 15,000 POs

Taking serious note of the alarming situation where the police has failed to arrest around 15,000 proclaimed offenders in Punjab, Haryana and Chandigarh, the Punjab and Haryana high court has directed the police authorities to find out some effective method to deal with the matter.

Taking serious note of the alarming situation where the police has failed to arrest around 15,000 proclaimed offenders in Punjab, Haryana and Chandigarh, the Punjab and Haryana high court on Wednesday directed the police authorities to find out some effective method in co-operation with one another to deal with the matter.

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The directions came from the bench headed by justice Rakesh Kumar Garg during the resumed hearing of a case in which the inspector generals of police (crime) of Punjab and Haryana along with the assistant superintendent of police (central) from UT Chandigarh were present.

The court was apprised that as on date a total number of 6,398 proclaimed offenders are on the run in Punjab, 5,725 in Haryana and 2,648 in UT Chandigarh. It was informed that 2,451proclaimed offenders were arrested by Haryana police in the last three years and UT police had been successful in arresting 267 proclaimed offenders since January last year.

However, the bench did not seem happy with the procedure being followed by the police authorities resulting in such offenders moving freely in the society. It was observed that there was a lack of co-ordination and follow up action among the states.

The bench also made observations that there have been cases where a person had gotten bail in one case whereas in another case the same person was a proclaimed offender. The bench has sought the detailed report from the states before May 3.