The case of missing charge-sheets
- Hueiyen Lanpao Editorial :: January 24, 2014 -
The reported missing of about 50 important charge-sheet copies related to criminal cases from various police stations has once again brought into focus the sorry state of affairs prevailing in the administration of the State Police Department.
As per the report, the officers-in-charge (OCs) of the police stations concerned submitted the charge-sheets of these cases to the prosecution.
But after they were send back to the Police Stations concerned for necessary rectification and updates, the charge-sheet copies were not to be seen or heard again until DGP Shahid Ahmed, who recently assumed the charge of the top police post of the State, directed ADGP (LO) LM Khaute to submit a progress report of all the cases handled by the Police Stations located across the State.
Accordingly, the ADGP made a thorough inquiry through the IGs, DIGs and SPs of all the districts and the missing charge-sheet copies came to the fore, much to the annoyance of the DGP and the disgrace of the whole Police Department.
It is good to know that with enough evidences to prove and establish that the charge-sheet copies have indeed gone missing after the prosecution sent them back to the Police Stations concerned for necessary rectification and updates, the DGP has strictly instructed for taking up stringent action against the IOs and OCs concerned if the charge-sheet copies could not be discovered within a short period of time.
To state simply, a charge-sheet is an important formal document of accusation prepared by the law-enforcement agencies under Section 173(2) of the Cr.P.C for intimation to the magistrate and it forms the prosecutor’s (government's) case in a criminal offense.
In other words, charge-sheet is a formal document of indictment.
So, its only after the charge-sheet has been submitted that a law court could decide as to who among the accused has sufficient prima facie evidence against him to be put on trial.
In such a scenario, while sending back the chargesheet copies by the prosecution to the police stations concerned for necessary rectification and updates has clearly indicated inadequate skills of the State police in drafting such important documents (of which Central Vigilance Commission has time and again stressed on the importance of documentation and drafting of the charge sheets in criminal cases in precise and clear terms), displacement of the same in the police custody speaks volume about the carelessness of all those responsible officers entrusted with the task of handling the cases.
Of course, some of the cases whose charge-sheet copies have done the vanishing act into thin air may be more than 30 years old, and to err may be human, but more than the charges of dereliction of duty, there is no reason why these responsible officers, who are supposed to be in a disciplined service, and thus, requiring maintenance of strict discipline and efficiency in service, should not be charged with criminal conspiracy of destroying the evidences of these cases as well under under Section 201 of IPC, if they failed to produce the missing charge-sheets.
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