DESPITE THE stress on clearing the massive backlog of investigations, it is ironical that the all-important case diaries have simply ‘disappeared’ from the police stations of this industrial city, creating a big hurdle in investigation of crimes.
The problem of non-availability of case diaries, which had been existing for quite some time, has reached a critical point not only in Kanpur but in several districts of the State.
Due to non-availability of case diaries, the investigators are now using plain paper to record day-to-day developments in cases. Needless to say, they’re bearing all the expenses from their own pockets.
An even bigger problem is the logjam in investigations and the legal wrangles the investigators are getting into. The case diary, on its part, is the most used and important document in police investigation and the detailing on plain paper is not admissible in court.
“Case diary (CD) has a high legal value... this is one document required at every stage of investigation and trial,” said an exasperated officer. “The situation for us is dicey as no investigating officer has been able to make any headway in investigations in the last one month or so. Secondly, the court is getting annoyed with us,” added another officer.
On Monday last, an investigating officer with no CD appeared in the court which was hearing the bail application filed by a person accused of peddling drugs.
{{/usCountry}}On Monday last, an investigating officer with no CD appeared in the court which was hearing the bail application filed by a person accused of peddling drugs.
{{/usCountry}}When the case came up, the IO simply presented the case-related memos or the ‘parchas’, as the cops call them, on plain paper.
The magistrate concerned simply lost his cool and blasted the IO for what he considered sheer negligence. He asked about the case diary and the IO replied that he had not been issued one for months. The same scenario was witnessed in other courts where the magistrates were flabbergasted with the lack of case diaries.
When Hindustan Times asked a number of investigating officers about the reason behind the problem, a stunning fact was disclosed. The police headquarters had not issued the CDs in which details are filled in a pre-decided format. Nor was any arrangement made to get the CDs printed at the local level.
“Normally, local printing of CDs and general diaries (GDs) is the prerogative of the SSP. But this time he did not give his consent though the problem was regularly raised before him,” said an SHO. On the other hand, the requisitions sent by the police stations to the PHQ were not entertained at all, for reasons best known only to those concerned.
A senior official told HT the reprimands by the court over this issue had made the authorities order printing of CDs at the local level. Still, early availability is unlikely, given the requirement of CDs, the high number of investigations pending and accumulation of new ones . Sources said it may take at least a month to make the CDs available at all the police stations. However, SSP PC Meena was not available for his comments.